There is no separation of church and state I believe. If I look intently at how every decision is made, often, I am the one who caves under pressure to the fear of being in the wrong or to the fear that someone will lose respect for me. All the while my own respect for myself is dwindling.
I'm not standing up for what I believe here, I'm standing up for me.
And the word church, I am using to refer to organized religion of any kind.
What I believe as a whole, changes, as well as it should. With more information, the mind's perspective on many areas will grow. I am Bible believing, I believe in the Bible as God intended it, not as I have interpreted it. I will always pursue the truth in what God gives us to see, I will always pursue the reason why what God asks us to do are the best things to do. He promises us that if we trust in Him with all our hearts, He will make our path straight. No one who hasn't trusted Him can say that is wrong, and even the people that have "trusted God" like me- well, we can hardly know the definition of that word as well as God intended. (1 Cor 8.2) And I often realize where I fall short.
So, as for church and state, I can tell you how that principle has no foundation in the Constitution, or I can tell you how it was only Thomas Jefferson's attempt to keep the nation from being ruled by any particular denomination or religion. But the point I want to make here is the beliefs that we all have been forced to ascribe to, by the government. Most arguing is just semantics anyway, but when you have a collection of beliefs that preclude another person's belief (i.e. allowing abortion when people disagree with it) there is going to be an obvious backlash. See, it's not that I'm saying abortion should be eliminated by the government, that belief is for the church to follow, but in that same sense, what right does the government have to prohibit anything? If they ban everything they believe will hurt the nation, the only reason they will accept or deny anything is based on a question that the church has to approach on a daily basis, what is beneficial to man?
So what results from this new coalition of mixed beliefs that is the government, is a belief system that is contributed to by almost all beliefs, but is not subject to any. It is a religion in and of itself, it is the Church of America.
It's amazing how their ideology has sunk into the minds of the unchurched in the nation. The government openned up so many doors so that everyone would have the right to choose what belief to be subject to, and yet theirs is the one most people follow. I personally feel that if the government were to be fully separate from the church, they would have to permit everything while everyone's own personal laws would be what limits there behavior. I know this is impossible, not everyone has any laws. But as a Christian, we are supposed to have discipline and prudence, being able to manage our own bodies in a godly way. I am saddened by what seems to me is the contradiction that so many people stand by, separation of church and state is impossible what the government approves is not always what God approves, the government just doesn't want to be what limits our decisions- though in a lot of ways they do.
Anyway, I would love feedback from you guys- I will do my best to give a researched response rather than just an opinion- these are topics I want to learn more about, I don't claim to know anything about them right now, only what I see and how I see it.
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