As an evangelical Baptist pastor I am very supportive of the separation of church and state.
But I wonder if you know what it really means? I have yet to see it discussed with any accuracy in the Canadian press.
Unfortunately the significantly under-informed secular media generally assumes and erroneously promotes the popular notion that the separation of church and state means that religious people will leave their beliefs at the door, or be forced to get out of politics – as though political actions will be instead be motivated by some religion-free agenda. They seem to envision a society and government free of any religious flavour, where one solitary group in our society alone, the adherents of secular thought, totally dominate the public square and so will be free from religion – never having to hear a religious word or thought in any public venue.
That is absolutely NOT what the separation of church and state has ever meant except in the weird totalitarian fantasies of secular pundits and their disciples in the media who worship at their anti-religious altar. The separation of church and state is about the freedom of religion. It is the freedom for religion.
It may surprise you to know that it was early Baptists and other Christian dissenters in England 400 years ago who were the primary developers of the concept of separation of church and state which ultimately shaped the American political expression of the idea. It was a part of their contention that dissenting Christians, Jews and Muslims should be free to practice their religion without any interference or punitive action by the Anglican government of the day. The King, you’ll notice, might well remain head of church and state, but nevertheless could not restrict the religious beliefs or practices of others.
The separation of church and state does NOT mean, and has never meant, that religious people will be kept from influence and vigorous involvement in political or public life. It does not mean that references to religion will be kept out of public events. That, of course, would mean arbitrarily restricting a whole segment of the population on the basis of their beliefs, intentionally trying to keep them from democratic participation in the public square. That is precisely the opposite of the separation of church and state. The desire to target certain segments of society (in this case Christians or other religious advocates) and restrict them from public involvement is as abhorrent as any other form of tyranny and should be treated as such. It is a blatant and revolting bigotry; a disgusting feature of our current Canadian political climate. Secularism is not some religiously neutral alternative for society: it is simply another collection of beliefs about religious ideas – and so it must not be allowed special status among other beliefs.
What the separation of church and state actually means, instead, is that the state may not allow itself to be used as a big stick to make individual citizens or groups adhere to the beliefs or practices of any other group. It means that no matter how strongly people believe something, they may not use the government to force others to comply with the practices, rituals or activities that come from their beliefs. That’s all.
Most simply, the state may not be co-opted by a bunch of zealots or ‘true believers’ in anything in order to force others to adhere to their cause or practice. Doesn’t matter what the beliefs are – beliefs about God (whether he exists or not), beliefs about religion, about science, about the environment – the government is not a tool for you to get others to comply with your perception of the world. It is illegitimate and an overt act of evil to use the state to force others to submit to whatever you believe.
In contrast with the ridiculous and bigoted secular media myth that consistently gets misrepresented as separation of church and state, the actual assumption of advocates of a genuine separation of church and state is that believers in a variety of things will gather together freely and democratically to shape the society in which we live. As a result, the state will naturally reflect the beliefs of that democratic pool. In a strange and even schizophrenic existence the state will participate in the religious life of the nation on occasion because it will fairly reflect the beliefs of her citizens. The crazed popular notion that citizens will simply leave their beliefs about religion behind when they get to the public square reflects a truly shallow understanding of how a person’s identity and psychology are constituted, and what a person’s beliefs in fact are. Worse, it represents a selective and inappropriate attempt to get religious people to adhere to the particular beliefs and practices of the secular agenda.
Again, the state may not in this fashion be co-opted by a bunch of zealots, and that, of course, is exactly what radical secularists are and what they intend to do – to grab government power and society and to shape them and the public behaviour of others according to their own peculiar beliefs about God (that he does not exist) and religion (that it is acceptable only in private), and so also to ensure that any reference to religion in any public forum whatsoever is struck down. That is a precise violation of the separation of church and state; it is nothing other than an evil attempt to misuse the power of the state to persecute those who don’t share secular beliefs.
Bottom line: the government is not a big stick for you to strike down others who disagree with you. Baptist Christians learned and taught that lesson 400 years ago. Now it is time for secularists, environmentalists and all other social control freaks to learn the same lesson.
I’m an evangelical Christian. My beliefs and practices are none of the government’s business. Period. And neither is my political involvement subject to evaluation or restriction by secular zealots or other anti-religious bigots and their government funded agencies. It’s none of your business why I think what I think or believe what I believe. My life and my perception of the world and truth are not subject to your control or agenda. And you who advocate such are the enemies of a free and democratic society, the enemies of the separation of church and state, and guilty of participating in the darkest threat western society faces today.