My mentor (now from across the eternity chasm) Fred Smith said this marvelously well.<\/p>\n
“Our forefathers understood the need to separate church and state —- the bureaucracies of both.\u00a0 But, they were very public in voicing their dependence on God.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t legislate against God.<\/p>\n
In their writings, memorials, statues, and public utterances, their deepest thought literally emerged from their faith.\u00a0 Were they hypocritical in their support of this separation?\u00a0 No, I think not.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We have confused the issue of religion in politics with the separation of church and state. \u00a0These are very different concepts which the media, and unknowledgeable, biased people treat as synonymous.<\/p>\n
The basic foundation of separation of church and state is keeping the two bureaucracies of each from uniting and thereby combing treason and heresy under the same authority.\u00a0 If a person offended the \u201cpowers that be,\u201d he could be declared a traitor or a heretic.\u00a0 It was a death grip on differing opinions.<\/p>\n
The union of church and state refused freedom for denominationalism.\u00a0 I am convinced this would be extremely unhealthy.\u00a0 I personally know and respect many of the current religious leaders.\u00a0 But, I do not know one I would risk heading the whole church.\u00a0 One of the blessings of denominationalism is the dispersion of church leadership.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, when human leaders face the choice between the visible power of politics and money or the invisible power of God, the visible too often is the option.\u00a0 He believes he can control the visible, but fails to bow to the invisible which controls him.<\/p>\n
I appreciate the effort to spiritually revitalize America.\u00a0 However, I am afraid of leaders who promise revival under their leadership — and theirs alone.\u00a0 Quoting verses of scripture can hardly deliver God.\u00a0 If God were through with us, no elections would return him.\u00a0 Heaven forbid that we have come to that point.<\/p>\n
I am searching to be on God\u2019s side, not promising He is on mine.\u00a0 I am searching for His leadership, not promising that mine will save.<\/p>\n
Am I saying religion should not enter into political decisions?\u00a0 Certainly not!\u00a0 To say a man\u2019s religious convictions should be kept out of his decisions is to suggest he become schizoid.\u00a0 We need more acceptance of our dependence on the eternal, not less.<\/p>\n
What we need is the original, Consitutional wisdom to keep the bureaucracy of religion and politics separate so we can practice out individual faith without the fear of state-imposed religion.<\/p>\n
We must correct the erroneous believe that religion in politics and public life is \u201cpersona non grata\u201d under the separation of church and state.\u00a0 Separation is for protection, not exclusion.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My mentor (now from across the eternity chasm) Fred Smith said this marvelously well. “Our forefathers understood the need to separate church and state —- the bureaucracies of both.\u00a0 But, they were very public in voicing their dependence on God.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t legislate against God. In their writings, memorials, statues, and public utterances, their deepest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,4],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-belief","tag-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.jbarrywatts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}