It is a political year and again we will hear much about the separation of “church and state”. There really is a diverse understanding of what comprises that idea. To get a handle on that we have to look back to the historical evolution of that idea. There were a large number of our forefathers who wanted to bring to our shores the ideas and policies of the English. One of those ideas was the “church state”. While they had left the shores of England to find freedom to practice religion as they wished to have it, it was not their idea to have freedom of religion.
It was their idea to set up a country/nation that practiced a pure religion as they saw it. Roger Williams took issue with this and nearly lost his life as a result. Roger Williams’ position was freedom of conscience and by definition wanted man to practice religion apart from constraint from without. In addition the Virginian Baptists opposed the idea of a state supported and sanctioned church. This division that they fought for and succeeded in placing within the amendments of our constitution is no simple or broadly agreed upon reality.
This “idea” is mostly cited today to wrest our nation from any responsibility to God, and that is a different matter indeed. I believe than any careful and open-minded study of history would reveal that man, whether secular or religious has a crucial responsibility to God. When that responsibility is abandoned the future of that people is bleak. In that context I would cite this verse from the Psalms:
Psalm 24:1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
To govern apart from God is to self-destruct.
