Just How Separate Should They Be?

The year 2007 was America’s and Virginia’s 400th anniversary. I was living in Virginia at the time, and it was cause for celebration. It also reminded me why those hardy Jamestown settlers risked—and often gave—their all to come to this new world. This is a reminder we should all have on a regular basis.

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America’s first European settlers were driven by several ideals, including, among others, land, money, freedom. Many came to this country to escape religious persecution in their homelands. Later, when their descendants won their freedom from their European parent nations, they made sure to preserve their hard-won religious freedom with these words: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The intent behind these words is clear: the founders of this country did not want the government to adopt a state religion, as was the case in so many of their ancestral homelands. They wanted what Thomas Jefferson later called a “separation of church and state.” The intent was not, however, to bar religious belief, religious symbols, or discussions of God from the public square. The founders of this country relied on the moral authority of God himself as justification for their break from Great Britain, as stated in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Unfortunately, over 200 years later, the idea of separating church and state has become corrupted to the point where some believe that simply having religious beliefs should disqualify one from political life. Type “religious beliefs disqualify for political office” into any Internet search engine and see how many hits you find. The biggest target for the anti-religious secularists in recent memory was President George W. Bush. The former President—and his evil cabal of “radical religious right” followers—was constantly attacked for allowing his religious beliefs to influence his decisions in office—as if George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and other presidents didn’t. I happen to be a big believer in the separation of church and state. I don’t want my government telling me how to worship, where to worship, who to worship, or that I must worship. But I’ll tell you this: I prefer that my president be a religious man—a TRULY religious man; not one who worships only when the public is watching—and I have two very good reasons for this:

1. Religious belief teaches that there are absolutes in this world. There are some things that are just right, and there are some things that are just wrong—always have been, always will be. Without this moral center to draw upon, moral relativism takes over, and what is “right” often becomes “what I can get away with,” whether that be stealing classified documents from the National Archives, perusing the FBI files of political opponents, or playing “Find the Cigar” with White House interns.
2. Religious belief also teaches humility. Too many political pundits are in the habit of calling the President of the United States the “most powerful man on the planet.” A statement like that can work on a person until he actually believes it’s true—and starts to act as if it were. I much prefer a president whose ego and actions are kept in check by the belief that one day he will have to answer to a higher power for the decisions he made while in office.

I’m grateful that I live in a nation that recognizes my religious freedom. Those who would seek to deprive us of this right in the public arena have turned their backs on the principles upon which this nation was founded, and they should be ashamed of themselves.