Q: Is it appropriate for
Christians to influence government and promote laws that are consistent with
their morality? Is the idea of a
separation between church and state biblical?
The accusation is frequently being
made in our nation that certain Christians are seeking to impose their beliefs
on the rest of the country. These
accusations often assume that it is immoral or illegal for religious people to
make or enforce laws if those laws are based on religious ideas.
This opinion is mistaken, though,
because the constitution’s protections only go in one direction. That is, they forbid the government from
imposing religious practice on citizens, and they forbid the government from
interfering in the religious exercise of its citizens. However, it does not forbid citizens from
choosing leaders or supporting causes based on their religious
convictions. In other words, the
constitutional provisions only work in one direction. The government may not interfere in the
practice of religion, but religious people are free to influence the course of
government.
Prior to the Christian Reformation,
it was simply assumed that government and religion were unified. Under this assumption, popes would often
coerce kings and princes into ruling according to his desires, and rulers at
various levels would often impose their religion on their subjects. It was in the midst of the Reformation that
Martin Luther first introduced the idea that religion and government acted in separate
spheres. Instead of “separation of
church and state,” he instead used the language of “two kingdoms.”
Luther proposed a framework in which God
ruled with His “right hand” through the Gospel by grace to forgive sins and
save souls, and a separate kingdom where God ruled with His “left hand”,
through the work of earthly laws and rulers, to preserve safety and keep order
in society. He saw these as separate,
yet complimentary ways in which God provides and protects humanity.
Often, religious morality makes good
public policy, such as when laws are made against murder, theft, fraud, and
other ways that people will harm one another, because these laws protect
citizens from being injured or robbed by ill-intentioned neighbors by
regulating external actions. On other
occasions, religious morality does not make good public policy. This is particularly true when dealing with
internal motivations or desires. Laws
against greed, lust, or hatred, for example, would be impossible to enforce,
not to mention universally disobeyed.
Likewise, we have seen that laws prohibiting all alcohol sale or
possession and forbidding Sunday commerce have also been ill-conceived.
This is why you see Christians
promoting some Biblical values as worthy of being national law but not
others. So, for example, there is not a
strong movement among Christians to promote laws against adultery or the use of
obscene language. When we do see
Christians supporting laws which reflect their morality, they are doing so not
to impose their morality on others, but in order to help and protect their
fellow citizens—not because it is God’s law, but rather because it makes good
public policy.
So when we see Christians supporting
pro-life measures, they do so for the sake of protecting living-yet-unborn
citizens. When Christians support
measures which protect marriage and preserve the family, it is because these
interests promote the good of the nation, and it is not in the best interest of
the state to adopt innovative definitions in this sphere.
For
the government, religious origin could never become a standard for accepting or
rejecting law, because then a vast majority of laws, even those forbidding
murder, would have to go. For the
Church, this means that she ought not have the illusion that her hope is in the
government reflecting her morality. The
Church does not deal in the sphere of legislation and coercion, but rather in
the sphere of proclamation and persuasion by God’s Word, so that Christ’s
message will go forth regardless of the laws of the state. As the Psalm says, “Put not your trust in
princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation…the Lord will reign
forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.”
