the separation of church and state

Many of you have probably heard about the phenomenon called Christian Nationalism. Or you may be aware of ways in which some politicians and other leaders are seeking to erode or eradicate that slippery notion called “the separation of church and state”.

For those of you who comprise the worship community known as Mt. Baker Park Presbyterian Church, you may be aware that we are neither Christian nationalists nor are actively seeking to remove the separation of church and state. But you may not have a clear grasp of what we do believe about this issue.

While there is much written in the Presbyterian Church (USA) constitution and confessional documents, it can be summed up succinctly. We not only believe in the separation of church and state (I’ll elaborate on our understanding of that concept in a moment), but we also believe that the church and its leaders cannot compel individuals to subscribe to any particular political party, candidate, or legislative issue.

Here is what our constitution says about individual freedom of conscience and religious freedom from state authority:

“'God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men (sic), which are in anything contrary to his Word, or beside it, in matters of faith or worship.' Therefore we consider the rights of private judgment, in all matters that respect religion, as universal and unalienable: We do not even wish to see any religious constitution aided by the civil power, further than may be necessary for protection and security, and at the same time, be equal and common to all others" (The Book of Order F-3.0101a, b).

In our Book of Confessions, the Barmen Declaration, written in 1934 to oppose Nazism and its takeover of religious institutions, says this about the limits of state power and the church’s freedom from that power in its mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

“We reject the false doctrine, as though the church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions…We reject the false doctrine, as though the State, over and beyond its special commission, should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life, thus fulfilling the church’s vocation as well…We reject the false doctrine, as though the church, over and above its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State” (Theological Declaration of Barmen, 8.18, 8.23, and 8.24).

It is a truism that "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (as Winston Churchill put it). God help us when this is not merely an abstract philosophical statement, but a tragedy being given traction and force in our midst!

In Christ,

Lee