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Imagine a United States
of America with an established State religion. Imagine that particular religion
to be at the whim of a President or Congress. During one term you may have a
Baptist-based religion with all of the doctrines of that faith imposed throughout
the government, schools, and business. During another term it may be Catholic.
Yet another term Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ.
Imagine a United States
of America in which baptism of infants and children was prohibited.
Imagine a return to the
days when women were prohibited from the pulpit.
Imagine a return to
slavery based on misconstrued verses in the Bible such as found in Ephesians
6:5 Slaves,
obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
If you think that a person may be stretching the
verse a bit, know also that an overzealous religionist could claim the fact
that Apostle Paul encourages a runaway slave to return to his master in
Philemon is support of slavery.
Perhaps they might even make an argument for
punishment by death for those who did not observe a sabbath. Check it out:
Exodus 35: Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.
Surely you do not think that overzealous people in
power would be restrained by “common sense”.
It is dangerous to have too much a mixing of State
and Church.
This is not to say that Christians should not serve
in elective or appointive office. They should, in fact, serve so as to protect
both the Church and State from encroachment of the other.
All of this is not to say that
individual Christians, denominations, and/or other religious groups should
not advocate governments to improve the conditions of
those living in poverty, those who suffer violence, those who are trafficked,
or those who are oppressed in any way. Indeed, as people of faith, be it
Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or others, we should feel compelled by our faith to
advocate for the “least of these.” (Matthew 25:46)
For these reasons, among so many others, I
believe that we must maintain and strengthen a separation of Church and State.
