It's the default theory of modern western pop culture that church and state must be completely separated for the good of mankind. Talk-show blowhards (read Bill Maher) make disreputable livings off such anti-intellectual bilge. Yet, both common sense and the historical record reveal this goal is a dangerous mirage. The record shows the West has led the globe in innovation for the last millennium. Further, that the West could not have arisen without Christian ideas and practices. Finally, logic reveals without continuing guidance from the unique perspective of the Church, the West is destined to fall.
