In the simplest terms, separating Church and State means that the institution and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church is separate from the institution and the civil jurisdiction of the State. The Church as an institution cannot mingle in the institutional affairs of civil government. Neither can its officers. In the same way, civil government cannot disturb the ministry and operation of the Church by tampering with the Church’s doctrines or courts.
Interesting, well researched article on the jurisdictional separation of church government and state government.
God has placed both the church and civil authorities in their positions for different purposes and given each jurisdiction over their own matters. Equal but separate. The rub of course is where does one jurisdiction end and the other begin. Is abortion a church or state issue? How does the state determine the legality of "moral" behaviors such as murder, theft, perjury, etc?
Random thoughts.
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6 comments:
"Bob Renaud is a student of Oakbrook School of Law and an aspiring attorney whose passion is to see God’s Word properly applied to law and public policy."
Sounds like a violation of the seperation right there.
Don't quite see what you mean there.
Christian's aren't allowed to be involved in the policy or law realms?
The Bible has nothing to say that might guide lawmakers?
I think Mr. Renaud might say that Civil authorities receive their jurisdiction and just powers from the Almighty, as do church authorities; and that the study of the scriptures helps us to properly apply that jurisdiction.
I'd be just fine with "...is to see his interpretation of God's..."
The constitution protects one's right to view the authority of governments as divinely inspired (masthead of the Mormon paper in SLC), but the constitution itself rejects such an interpretation on a juridical level. It's a personal belief that can't be universalized, legally.
Agreed. In fact I presume the countries founders felt (or at least wrote) they had the authority to found this country based on divine law.
Those crazy deists.
interesting... an unintended, genius aspect of democracy is that the state of the government will represent the state of the people. We needn't impose any particular religion on our government. Whether or not our government is morally stable will reflect the moral stability of us, the people. So how are we doing?
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