"A Christian Looks
At the Religious Right"
A Case for Separation
Weston Ware, a recently retired church/state consultant for the Baptist General Convention of Texas told me that the primary social issue facing the world at the turn of the twenty first century was religious liberty. The more I think on what he said, I am convinced he is right. Chevy Chase, the comedian, once commented, "Our country was founded on the idea of separation of our business from our religion." Profoundly so, there is a great misunderstanding of the virtue.
John Wesley said that the reason for the need of the Protestant Reformation can be laid at the feet of the merger of church and state.1
Wesley, the pillar of Methodism, said this corrupting influence ruined the church and sent it into its centuries long decline. Authors like C.J. Herring have joined Wesley’s position. Author Gary Wills writes that the United States sat up a government that borrowed ideas from other cultures. The idea of different branches of power, a Constitution and elected officials has roots in other nations. The one thing that America contributed to the world in government structure was the idea of separation of church and state. 2
Early American reformer Roger Williams, a Baptist minister, led the charge to distance the controls of church and state from one another. He decried the forced religious conversions the state used on the Native Americans. 3
Billy Graham warned, "To tie the Gospel to any political system, secular program, or society is wrong and will only serve to divert the Gospel. The Gospel transcends the goals and methods of any political system or any society, however good it may be."4
Religious liberty expert, James Dunn, calls the marriage of religion and secular politics for political purposes an "incestuous marriage".5
Church/state expert, James Wood of Baylor University, warns that the blending of God and politics makes an idol of the state.6
An emerging redefinition of separation is taking shape in American politics. It used to be that violators of separation were primarily found in the Black church. Conservative columnist, Cal Thomas, said, "Many Black pastors who once cried, let my people go, have let them down. They are no longer prophetic, but pathetic. Their leadership has turned government, specifically the Democratic Party, into an idol and it is worshipping at the altar of federal programs and federal courts, no longer willing to hear the voice of God or preach about sin and redemption."7
It is believed that all rights stem from the idea of religious liberties. All freedoms come from the original American idea of religious liberty. Thomas Jefferson called religious liberty "the most sacred of human rights."8
In contrast to this world view, the Religious Right has been involved in a decades long assault on separation. Jerry Falwell, strangely a Baptist, called separation "bogus".9
Southern Baptists, once champions of religious liberty, have traded in their uniforms to join the opposing team. A recent president of the Southern Baptist Convention claimed the whole idea of separation of church and state came from a misinformed court decision in the 40s.10
Gary North, himself a son-in-law to one of the modern patriarchs of the Dominion movement, writes an interesting history of the anti-separation folks. North’s father-in-law, R.J. Rushdoony, is given credit for providing much of the belief system to the modern idea that separation of church and state is a forbidden practice for Christians. North claims R.J. linked up with Francis Schaeffer and the two have led the charge in their writings seeking to, as North puts it, lower the bridge on Calvinism and getting them into the world.11
Other leaders, like David Barton, have leaped from holding church seminars to positions on Republican Party platforms. In 2002, Texas Republicans met in Dallas and one of their major thrusts was the idea of attacking separation. The platform said the nation needs to "dispel the myth of separation of church and state."12
Jerry Falwell has turned over the remains of his Moral Majority to Rick Scarborough. Tom Delay once told a national audience I sat in that Rick took over his school board, city, and county governments. Now go and do likewise. Rick calls separation a lie. His pamphlets suggest that real Christians don’t adhere to it. At the coronation of Scarborough in Lubbock Falwell said, "The idea that America was built upon the separation of church and state is a myth."13
Scarborough has joined forces with board member David Barton. Barton and Susan Weddington, who is the state GOP head, developed a party platform that the Bush family wants to distance itself from. Among interesting items is abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, the EPA, the IRS, and pull out of the U.N. The Christian Right in the meeting in Dallas sought to impose this platform on all candidates. Bill Borden, a delegate from Houston, called on politicians to follow the platform or shoot themselves in the foot.14 Bill, a John Bircher, is the author of some political brochures that got Second Baptist Houston in trouble with the IRS over electioneering.
If Richard Land, James Kennedy and Scarborough have their way, the idea that the IRS will punish churches for secular political activity will end. A Jones Bill is before Congress with partisan backing that will do away with a ruling LBJ popularized. The ruling punishes churches who endorse candidates for political office with loss of their tax exempt status. Land is head of Southern Baptist’s religious liberty work. James Kennedy is a Presbyterian TV preacher who hates the idea of separation almost as much as he does the ACLU. The idea of overturning this decision about electioneering has obvious motives. The bill would even allow churches to spend as much as %20 of their budgets on secular politics. The Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Executive Board unanimously passed a resolution against the Jones Bill. Separation groups have joined in on the attack while the Religious Right is pushing Congress to get this out for a vote.
Pat Robertson has called separation a Soviet Concept on many occasions. The late W.A. Criswell of Southern Baptist fame coined separation a creation of an infidel. Robert Simonds of the National Association of Christian Educators said separation of the church and state is a "socialist myth."15 Roman Catholics, historic foes to separation, have joined in on the chorus. In 1992, a Catholic newsletter proclaimed, "separation of church and state is a false premise that must finally be cast aside."16 Americans United for Separation of Church and State reports that an anti-separation Pope is on the fast track for Catholic sainthood.17
White Protestant churches complain that Black churches have gotten away with violations for decades and now they want in on the endorsements. Black ministers endorsed Clinton and Gore in the Memphis area.18 In Booneville, Missouri the city gave money to two Black churches for building programs.19 Dr. Frank Wright of the Center for Christian Statesmanship sites separation as a dangerous thing that seeks to "purge faith from our public lives."
Historically in America, Christians weren’t so paranoid about their government. They tended to go along with separation. Roger Willaims decried the way powerful nations determined the religion of powerless people.20 Williams rose up against the official church of the state. He carried that torch even further by demanding complete freedom of religion...a position Barton and others denounce, was intended by original founders.
James Dunn, whose agency was defunded by the modern Southern Baptist Convention, continues to speak his voice. Dunn’s religious liberty agency was replaced with one that wants the state to accommodate the church. To those who dismiss church separation he quipped, "you may be far closer to Jesus than James Dunn,...but frankly, my dear, you’re not a Baptist."21 One time professor in the SBC, Fisher Humphreys, said, "the loss of the principle of the separation of church and state is the greatest tragedy in the history of the Southern Baptist Convention."22
In the movie classic "Catch 22", there is a revealing scene in which the chaplain comes to see the colonel. He has been wanting to visit with the officer to share his concerns. The colonel tells the chaplain to keep working though the chaplain seems unclear on his role in the war effort. The colonel said to keep teaching the troops about God and he had better not find out there was an atheist who would be dealt with. Thus the idea of forcing faith on the men is portrayed.
The chaplain says he is concerned about the morale of the troops who believe that sending them off on so many flying missions over enemy territory is only furthering the ambitions of commanding officers. They are sent off on more missions than is required by service regulations. It is implied that the flights serve the personal ambitions of the colonel. To which the officer responds it is none of the chaplain’s business. The chaplain finds himself with the job description of supporting the state’s positions but not challenging the state’s moral actions. Ultimately, when the church and state become mixed this sometimes becomes the role of the clergy.
Whenever separation first was proposed the established church leaders feared that the prophetic voice of the church would be silenced by money from the pew. They were wrong and separation produced voices like Martin Luther King’s. The very foundations of the American democracy appear to be at stake in this argument. Separation is Constitutional, Biblical, Baptist and American, verified by history and doctrine. It has never had so many enemies as it has today in the nation.
August, 2002
Endnotes
1. Donald Durnbaugh, THE BELIEVER’S CHURCH, MacMillan Co., Londan, 1968, pg. 215
2 Gary Wills, UNDER GOD, Simon & Schuster, N.Y., N.Y., 1990, pg. 383
3. Edwin Gaustad, ROGER WILLIAMS IN AMERICA, Eerdmans, 1991, pg. 30.
4. Mark Wingfield, "Christian Nation Sounds Good but Not True, Expert Says," BAPTIST RECORD, 1992, pg. 4.
5. TIME, Dec.9, 1991, pg. 64.
6. Baptist Joint Committee Calendar, March,1992.
7. Gary Wills, pg. 243
8. Pam Perry, "Religious Liberty", REPORT FROM THE CAPITOL, Nov./Dec. 1993, pg. 6.
9. Rob Boston, WHY THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IS WRONG ABOUT CHURCH AND STATE, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 1993, pg.17.
10. Thomas Elliff, AMERICA ON THE EDGE, NCM, Okla. City, Okla., 1992, pg. 64
11. Gary North email July 17, 2002.
12. Houston Americans United email, June, 10, 2002.
13. Beth Pratt, "Falwell Handing Over Reins", LUBBOCK AVALANCHE, July 9, 2002.
14. Jake Berstein, "Elephant Wars", THE TEXAS OBSERVER, July 5, 2002, pgs. 8 &19.
15. BAPTIST TODAY, Oct. 29, 1992, pg. 7.
16. John Swonley, "The Vatican Connection", CHRISTIAN ETHICS TODAY, April 1997, pg. 20.
17. "People and Events", CHURCH AND STATE, Oct. 2000, pg. 19.
18. "Christians & Society", AFA JOURNAL, Feb. 1993, pg.19.
19. CHURCH AND STATE, pg. 19.
20. Edwin Gaustad, CONSCIOUS, ROGER WILLIAMS IN AMERICA, Eerdmans, 1991, pg. 30.
21. REPORT FROM THE CAPITAL, July 11, 2001, pg.1.
22. "Book Review", REPORT FROM THE CAPITAL, April 18, 1995, pg. 4.