From a practical standpoint, a case can be made against the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state.
Christianity Thrives where Christianity is Illegal
If one looks throughout the world and throughout history, the places and eras where Christianity is the most vibrant, faithful, effective, and Spirit-led, are the places where Christianity is illegal.
It seems that when governments put their stamp of approval on Christianity as a religion, or when governments step back and allow people to worship as they see fit, it is then that Christian vibrancy and faithfulness suffers.
Christianity Dies where Christianity Rules
But worse yet is when Christianity becomes the state religion. Some of the bloodiest and cruelest eras in history have been when Christianity gained the power of the state and became the official religion of the government. The crimes that are committed in the name of Christ by “Christian governments” are some of the worst the world has ever seen.
When Christianity gains power over others, it gains the very things which Satan offered to Jesus, and which Jesus rejected (Luke 4:1-13). When the church falls to these temptations, the church becomes more of a tool of Satan than of the Savior.
Asking the Government for our Right to Worship
The most ironic element in all of this, however, is that when the church demands and fights for its right to practice Christianity as we think we should, where do we go to protect and defend this right? We go to the government!
In asking the government to affirm our right to practice religion by rulings from the courts and laws of this land, we have placed ourselves in bondage to the government.
If separation of church and state is true, then the church does not need the state for approval. By going to the state through the courts and the legal law-system, we undermine the very thing we are trying to protect, namely, our desire to worship God apart from the interference of the state!
Jeremy, I am intrigued by your personal story and growth and the depth of topics you are covering. It makes me (us) think, and that’s definitely a good thing, especially today and the trying times ahead. We better be prepared to be defenders of the faith.
But, are you serious? :”Some of the bloodiest and cruelest eras in history have been when Christianity gained the power of the state and became the official religion of the government. The crimes that are committed in the name of Christ by “Christian governments” are some of the worst the world has ever seen.” Where is this evident? Because Hitler claimed he was a Christian?!
May I strongly suggest you invest some time in reading most any of the works over at WallBuilders.com
It will become very clear that this great nation was built by men of great faith and courage, and not to dominate others.
Grateful Al,
Yes, I suppose some footnotes would have been helpful, and no, I was not thinking of Hitler, but about a great many other horrible deeds and mass murders done in the name of Christ by Christian Kings and Emperors throughout church history. The crusades are the most famous example, but there have been numerous others before and since.
Here is one book that shows the bloody savagery that Christians used on each other as they fought with each other over whether or not Jesus was truly God: Jesus Wars
. This is just one example.
I kinda think your footnotes need footnotes, ones that get at the theology of the matter. If your claim is that “The crimes that are committed in the name of Christ by “Christian governments” are some of the worst the world has ever seen” there may be enough solid examples to show a pattern to this, but I honestly haven’t seen one. Instead, I’ve seen mostly “everybody knows” examples, like that everybody knows that the Crusades consisted of Christians murdering and committing horrible deeds; since everybody knows this it doesn’t require any detail to explain why this is the case – except that it’s done so frequently that many people will cite the Crusades as an example of Christians doing horrible things without actually knowing any historically accurate details of what horrible things they were doing.
Now, you probably know more about the Crusades than the average American who would do this, so you probably have some specific ideas in mind. And I certainly agree that some horrible things were done during the Crusades, but many individual horrible things happening during a series of wars does not mean that all of those wars were simply Christians doing what Christians ought not.
Now, a comment on your blog is probably not the place for me to go from Augustine up to the present and discuss the possibility of justifiably going to war; but if one of your examples that proves that Christian governments commit some of the worst crimes in Christs name is simply “the Crusades,” then this is where ‘bringing theology to life part’ has to kick in and prove that violence is always a crime and never justifiable – something that some might argue, but I don’t see a theological basis for that position here.
Absolutely true. There is so much thinking and research that needs to be done on this topic, and I am in no way doing the issue any justice through such quickly-written blog posts.
I am viewing this posts as a preliminary outline for future research and study. As I read and study more, I will add to my own rough outline on my computer and who knows…. maybe someday it will turn into a researched and documented book.
By the way, if you want some specific examples other than the most famous example of the crusades, study what the church did to other “Christians” such as the Donatists, Paulicans, Cathars, Albigensians, Waldensians and numerous others, including the slaughter of the Anabaptists and other splinter groups throughout Christian history. And these are groups within Christianity we were killing!
The treatment of people outside Christianity was even worse, such as our treatment of “pagans” who refused to convert to Christianity after it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, or the Jews during most of Christian history, or other religious groups in Germany and Great Britain who were slaughtered and enslaved by invading Christian armies, or the enslavement of Native Americans and Africans by imperialistic Christian settlers of the “New World.” The witch hunts are another example. And on and on it goes.
In history, whenever a government becomes a “Christian government,” bad things usually result.
My emphasis in seminary was church history. Reading the old tomes can be tedious, but enlightening. Indeed many things have been done in Christendom, although often at the behest of the political/religious establishment to further their causes, that do not follow the example of Jesus or the principles set forth in the Gospel.
I love reading church history, but sometimes it gets depressing!