Separation of Church and State

I am a christian, a member of the Episcopal (Anglican) tradition, on my mothers’ side to before the American Revolution. There are things my church does that I do not agree with, but more I do agree with. We, in most cases, do not preach politics from the pulpit; we preach the message of the gospel which to love God and your neighbor. Still a good message. Then, follow your heart and engage in politics in whatever way you see fit, remembering the two directives above.

“One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”  Plato

I read a piece this morning I resonated with, a mixed race preacher talked about the church’s role in politics. An excerpt and a quote from the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King is below.

“In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave this direct warning to people of faith:

The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.

Today, we forget that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the Reverend Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. The organization he founded, SCLC, stood for the Southern Christian Leadership Council. It was as a Christian leader, standing unashamedly on the authority of Scripture, that King spoke truth to power and called out racism and bigotry in society.”

The preacher highlights the following: “The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in either the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. What we have is the First Amendment’s “establishment clause,” which prohibits setting up an official state church. Somehow, “separation of church and state” has soaked into our collective consciousness and brainwashed us into thinking the church must never insert itself into political discourse or public policy. It is actually the other way around: The point of the First Amendment is that the government must get out of the church’s business.”

“The conscience of the State”, what a nice idea.

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