Hello again. Recently, yours truly was considering what to write about for this week’s opinion column. And I had a wondrous thought: What if I wrote about the separation of church and state and how that bedrock of American society is being undermined by the religious right in our country?
According to the Washington Post, earlier this year on June 26, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, (R-Colo.), who was speaking at a Sunday worship service and having a primary election at the time, stated point-blank: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it.”
She then continued, “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.”
The statement is shocking. And Boebert is not the only one with that perspective, as other political leaders in America have also expressed similar sentiments.
Now, many might say, “She’s just an extremist; she doesn’t reflect the views of most Christians.” Or, “She’s not saying what you think she’s saying.”
Well, what is she saying, then? And what are the views of most Christians — including Seventh-day Adventists — regarding this topic?
I’m sure many of you have heard someone tell you (or maybe it was your school) that America was founded as a Christian nation; that the founders were Christian and that they made America a “Nation under God.”
Some of you may be asking, “How is any of this a bad thing? Shouldn’t we love God? Shouldn’t we love our country?”
Well, loving God is never a problem, because loving God never interferes with anyone’s freedom. The problem comes when people decide that loving God means we must force that love on others.
“But Xavier, we must reach people for Jesus!”
What does reaching people for Jesus have to do with enforcing a Christian perspective on an entire nation? That would be a theocracy. And, as Adventists, that should be a concern considering that we are a minority Christian religion.
If America is a Christian nation, what version of Christianity is it? And, who makes that determination?
There’s a reason why the very first amendment of the Constitution prohibits government from making laws “respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
As for loving your nation, sure, respect it. But loving it to the point of blind patriotism? That’s when we enter the realm of nationalism to the extreme.
At this point in the article, I would like to kindly remind you that nations and governments are arbitrary, man-made systems. They are not living creatures; they do not have a soul. They are not worthy of unconditional love and empathy, as they are simply machines; and machines should serve the will of the people. People should not serve the will of a machine.
Therefore, when it comes to church and state, let’s keep them separate.
