You Cannot Separate Politics and Religion

Knowing the origin of something is key to understanding it.

For example, I find it humorous that people get offended by the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays", saying "you should say Merry Christmas!  You're trying to take Christ out of Christmas, and you're trying to take Christmas out of the Holidays!"

These people don't understand that the origin of "Happy Holidays" is not to mean multiple Christmastime holidays, such of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa etc, or to make the greeting ambiguous, thus further from Christ.  This phrase is meant to be plural: to represent the "holidays" of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's; two of which are Christian holidays.  Thus, many people are getting offended for nothing.

Similarly, when it comes to religion within politics, people are getting offended for nothing.  They scream "separation of church and state!  There is a separation of church and state!"  But they do not understand the origin of this "separation".

Let's look at history.


First of all, separation of church and state was not a thing until the founding of the United States.  In fact, it wasn't even an idea until around 426 AD, when St. Augustine published The City of God, which talked about a earthly city and a heavenly city, and how they were different.

Before that, for thousands of years, every single government and nation was one of a few things:
1. A theocracy - a nation ruled by the priests, prophets, or divine leaders
2. A religious monarchy--a nation ruled by a monarch who derived his authority and power from God, or was a god himself, through the divine right of kings
3. Had an established state religion--a religion endorsed, upheld, and supported by the government

The Egyptian Pharaoh and the Japanese Emperor were seen as Gods.  Under Moses, Joshua and the Judges, Israel was a theocracy until the rule of King Saul, when it became a religious monarchy. Each city-state of Greece had a patron god toward which the people were ordered to focus their worship. Whether ruled by Caesar, or by the Senate, greco-roman religion was established in Rome until Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the state religion.  Islam, since its founding, has established caliphate or religious states.

The problem with church and state being merged like this is that it made religious persecution really easy.  In Egypt, the Hebrews were enslaved and kept from worshipping the way they chose.  Socrates was executed in Athens for "denying the gods".  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thrown into the furnace for refusing to worship the idols established by the Babylonian ruler, King Nebuchadnezzar II, and Daniel was thrown in the lion's den for continuing to practice Judaism and pray to the God of Israel.  Christ was tried for blasphemy and ultimately crucified.  Nero, the Roman Emperor, declared Christians a "menace", had them used as human torches to light Rome at night, and had them killed in arenas as entertainment.  When Theodosius declared Christianity the state religion, Jews, and those who worshipped pagan gods, were persecuted. Buddhists were killed when they first entered Japan, because they threatened Shintoism, and Christians were crucified and burned several hundred years later when they first came, because they threatened Buddhism.  During the Reformation, Roman Catholics were killed in England, (where the Anglican church reigned) and Scandinavia (where Lutheranism had been established), and Protestants were killed everywhere else in Europe, where the Catholic church ruled.  I could go on and on and on.  There are entire volumes of books dedicated to this subject.
(A good place to start a study of this subject is the Library of Congress).

Even today, more than 50 nations have a state religion.  The  majority of these are Muslim states, but you would be surprised by some of the others.  The Church of Greece in Greece.  Lutheranism in Denmark, Iceland, Finland and Norway.  Various sects of Buddhism in Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Bhutan. Judaism in Israel.  Most shockingly, Britain still holds Anglicanism as the state church, with the Queen as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England (and you thought Britain was all modern and stuff.)

So what does this have to do with America?  Well, let us examine the origin of the American colonies.

The 13 original colonies were established in 2 separate movements: the South was established by British aristocrats for profit.  Profit made from tobacco and cotton sales.  The North was established by those seeking religious freedom: those fleeing the persecution they had experienced in Europe. The Pilgrims who established Plymouth were among these, but they weren't the only ones.  The Pilgrims, Calvinist Puritans, fled from England because their dissension from the Church of England endangered them.

So the South for profit, and the North for religious freedom.  One is, of course, notably nobler than the other.  There is a reason why the Pilgrims have a national holiday, and John Smith only has a completely historically inaccurate Disney movie.

Ironically, the descendents of the pilgrims later participated in religious persecution.  Every heard of the Salem witch trials?  Yeah, that was them.  They also banished Roger Williams from Massachusetts for having differing religious opinions, and he left and founded Rhode Island.  John Hooker had a similar banishment, took his followers, and established Connecticut.  John Mason fled the Puritan harshness north and westward, founding New Hampshire.  Catholics who came to America were persecuted, so George Calvert founded Maryland as a place where they could worship unmolested.  William Penn established Pennsylvania as a religious haven for Quakers.

So fast forward.  It is time to pen the Constitution of the United States.  Although it has been a little over a hundred years, many of the northern colonies have held their religious integrity: meaning Massachusetts was mainly Puritan, Maryland Catholic, Pennsylvania Quaker, etc.  So what was on the mind of many of the colonists?  If we form a union, will our religious freedoms be threatened?  This was a legitimate concern, because the very establishment of almost every single Northern colony was for the purpose of the right to worship god as they pleased.  They had seen religious persecution and intolerance, and they were scared of it.

In addition, all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were men of God.  I have not yet found an account of a single one of the Founding Fathers being unreligious.

Isaac Potts, local Quaker, records finding George Washington praying in the woods at Valley Forge (The orriginal manuscript is at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; call number PHi.Am 1561-1568):
"I was riding...near Valley Forge, where the army lay during the war of the Revolution. ...In that woods....I heard a plaintive sound, as of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling and went quietly into the woods and to my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis and the cause of the country, of humanity, and of the world. 

"Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying. I went home and told my wife, 'I saw a sight and heard today what I never saw or heard before', and just related to her what I had seen and heard and observed. We never thought a man could be a soldier and a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington. We thought it was the cause of God, and America could prevail."

Benjamin Franklin said:
"The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men.  And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probably that an empire can rise without His aid?"

There are also innumerable accounts of various signers stating that they knew it was with the help of God that America won it's independence.

The "creator" spoken of in the Declaration is God.  The Presidential Oath of Office ends with the words "so help me God".

It is an indisputable fact that the founders of our nation were religious.

So to break down the separation of church and state, the Constitution says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

Notice, that is all it says.  It does not say politicians cannot talk about God, it does not say teachers cannot teach about God, it does not say we cannot pray in public schools, it does not say we cannot say "one Nation under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, or recite it in schools, or have statues of the Ten Commandments or Moses in front of our courthouses.  It merely says that Congress shall make no laws.  Basically, it says "no state religion".  It doesn't call for the abolishment of God from politics and the public eye altogether.

This is because the Founding Fathers saw the ugliness of state religion in Europe, especially their motherland of Britain.  It is because they saw religious persecution in the colonies, and they wanted to end it!  The separation of church and state does not mean "religion, stay out of the state"; it means "state, stay out of religion".  They are very different things.

Separation of church and state doesn't mean "religion cannot and should not affect your political decisions".  The Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves knowing that's how people have interpreted it!  Religion affected every decision made by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Madison.  This was a good thing.  This is why they were so great, and why our nation is so great!

You cannot separate politics and religion.  I believe there are two unseen forces constantly at war with one another: God and his angels, and the Devil and his demons.

Now, I also believe that the Devil is one smart son of a gun.  He has had a lot of practice at what he does.  From the foundation of the world, he has been tempting people and getting them to do evil.  And he has realized that it is a lot more effective to work within established systems.  Why would he try to accomplish some horrible evil through a random hobo with absolutely no power and influence when he could do it through a powerful political leader?

Think about World War II.  It was much easier for the Devil to spread death and destruction, hate and evil through Hitler and the German government than it would have been to do so through some random Joe.  The Devil accomplishes his evil purposes through evil politicians, evil laws, and evil governments.

Evil exists.  People are evil.  If you disagree, then you are certainly naive.
If it was feasible for Hitler or Stalin to be evil, it is certainly feasible that a political leader today could be just as much so.  Or do you suppose that in our postmodern society we are so advanced that we have entirely overcome evil in the political system?

I would venture to say that evil and corruption exist in every government in every country in the entire world.  The only difference is "how much?"

This is the #1 reason why I support gun rights.  There are many other reasons, but that is quite another topic altogether.
Because the purpose of the 2nd amendment is to give citizens the power to combat tyranny; and because evil exists, and people are evil, and evil people are in the government, then the possibility of future tyranny exists!

Because evil exists, and it most certainly works within our political system, our voting decisions must be based on morality.  Laws must be based on morality.  They have been from the beginning of time.  Murder is illegal because it is wrong, not because it is "naturally abhorable".  The second we decide to separate church and state in our minds, the Devil wins.

I will be so bold as to say: if you go to the ballot, and vote contrary to your religious beliefs, you are betraying your God, or whomever you believe in.  He expects you to uphold what is right through your vote.  Voting based on morality is not "forcing beliefs".  It is protecting them.  Or are you going to tell me that I am forcing my beliefs on theives, serial killers, rapists, pedafiles, and zoophiles by making their actions illegal?

Abraham Lincoln said, "America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."  If America ceases to vote based on morality, and individual religious belief, we will destroy ourselves.