Separating Church and State
Deborah Venable
03/26/08
By
the simplest of definitions, the government of the United States of America can
accurately be called a theocracy in its foundations, but that word sparks fear
in the hearts of many freedom-loving Americans. The big difference in most theocracies and the American
government founded on a belief in God-given rights is the word, church. There is no single church that defines our
freedom. Our troubles come from people
who must have their beliefs spelled out in a specific religious (or
non-religious) charter of some sort.
The re-unification of America will only be possible if we stop trying to
separate God from State and we stop trying to integrate Church and State.
I
believe in God. I believe that God has
blessed America many times over, and I also believe that man – not God – has
damned America.
With
the wide publication of Jeremiah Wright’s sermons of hate filled, anti-American
rhetoric, we are forced to think about the implications of theocratic rule as a
real possibility if this pastor’s protégé should be elected President of the
United States. Personally, I think the
real concern in that event has nothing to do with God and more to do with the
church of liberalism that Obama belongs to.
Yes, I said church. For
liberalism has a very specific charter, and included in that charter is the
absolute necessity of eliminating Christian decency in order for social
liberalism to flourish.
Reverend
Wright’s church (Obama’s church) has been infiltrated by the tenets of
liberalism. Instead of leading the
congregation to a celebration of salvation through Jesus Christ, Reverend
Wright foists hate and misery upon all those who follow his teachings. Race is the only thing that matters to these
people – they don’t want equality of the races – the only thing that will make
them happy is black superiority. They
won’t allow any of us to “look beyond color of skin to content of
character.”
I’m
quite sure there are many other churches, some under the guise of Christianity,
that also teach divisiveness - (I’ve sat in the pews of a few of them) – but
there are many more others that do not.
It is to those we should flock, if we feel the need to congregate in a
church, for they do no harm.
Recently,
I heard a statistic that people are attending church services in ever
decreasing numbers. I hope there are
two reasons for this. I hope that many of
these people are finding their way closer to God by refusing to be shepherded
by such hateful preaching as those aforementioned churches provide. I hope it is not simply because so many have
turned their backs to God.
Church
should not be big business, as too often we see that it is. Church should not be an opportunity for
preachers to rant and rave about their political beliefs – whatever those may
be. We should not go to church to learn
politics. Nothing turns me off faster
than listening to a preacher spew fire and brimstone from a pulpit in a church
– much less hate speech, racial slurs, (and political ravings against a country
that ferociously defends his right to do so), followed immediately by the
“passing of the plate” to support further rantings. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that the house of God should be a
place of serene introspection and a gentle reminder that life’s joys far
outweigh the negatives.
To
say that in government there is no place for theocracy is like saying that in
life there is no place for morality.
There can be no government of a free people that is not based on
morality, and all moral dealings are a result of human’s acceptance of laws
inspired by Divine guidance. Our
Founders made it abundantly clear that America was founded on laws inspired by
such Divine guidance. I am sick of
modern educators and politicians that insist on arguing that point. I am equally sick of churches that insist on
melding politics into their worship services.
That is where the separation is needed.
A
little over four years ago a politician delivered a speech on the floor of the
United States Senate. The mainstream
media gave it minimal play at the time as I recall, but it should go down in
history as a defining moment of telling it like it is in today’s America. Here is the kicker – the politician
delivering the speech was a Democrat.
His name – Zell Miller, D - Georgia.
The speech was called “A Deficit Of Decency” and any speech that any one
of our current front-runners for president has ever given would pale in
comparison, for it contained all the elements of the aforementioned Divine
guidance – and it certainly did no harm!
Here
is the text of that speech found at this site.
A Deficit Of Decency In America
Senator Zell Miller
February 12, 2004
“The Old Testament
prophet Amos was a sheep herder who lived back in the Judean hills, away from
the larger cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Compared to the intellectual
urbanites like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he was just an unsophisticated country
hick.
“But Amos had a
unique grasp of political and social issues and his poetic literary skill was
among the best of all the prophets. That familiar quote of Martin Luther King,
Jr. about ‘Justice will rush down like waters and righteousness like a mighty
stream’ are Amos’s words.
“Amos was the first
to propose the concept of a universal God and not just some tribal deity. He
also wrote that God demanded moral purity, not rituals and sacrifices. This
blunt speaking moral conscience of his time warns in Chapter 8, verse 11 of The
Book of Amos, as if he were speaking to us today:
That ‘the days will
come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Not a famine
of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.
‘And they shall
wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They shall run to
and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.’
‘A famine in the
land’. Has anyone more accurately described the situation we face in America
today? ‘A famine of hearing the words of the Lord.’
“But some will say,
Amos was just an Old Testament prophet – a minor one at that – who lived 700
years before Christ. That is true, so how about one of the most influential
historians of modern times?
“Arnold Toynbee who
wrote the acclaimed 12 volume A Study of History, once declared, ‘Of the 22
civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them collapsed when they
reached the moral state America is in today.’
“Toynbee died in
1975, before seeing the worst that was yet to come. Yes, Arnold Toynbee saw the
famine. The ‘famine of hearing the words of the Lord.’ Whether it is removing a
display of the Ten Commandments from a Courthouse or the Nativity Scene from a
city square. Whether it is eliminating prayer in schools or eliminating ‘under
God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance. Whether it is making a mockery of the sacred
institution of marriage between a man and woman or, yes, telecasting around the
world made-in-the-USA filth masquerading as entertainment.
“The Culture of Far
Left America was displayed in a startling way during the Super Bowl’s now
infamous half-time show. A show brought to us courtesy of Value-Les Moonves and
the pagan temple of Viacom-Babylon.
“I asked the question
yesterday, how many of you have ever run over a skunk with your car? I have
many times and I can tell you, the stink stays around for a long time. You can
take the car through a car wash and it’s still there. So the scent of this
event will long linger in the nostrils of America.
“I’m not talking just
about an exposed mammary gland with a pull-tab attached to it. Really no one
should have been too surprised at that. Wouldn’t one expect a bumping, humping,
trashy routine entitled ‘I’m going to get you naked’ to end that way.
“Does any responsible
adult ever listen to the words of this rap-crap? I’d quote you some of it, but
the Sergeant of Arms would throw me out of here, as well he should. And then
there was that prancing, dancing, strutting, rutting guy evidently suffering
from jock itch because he kept yelling and grabbing his crotch. But then, maybe
there’s a crotch grabbing culture I’ve unaware of.
“But as bad as all
this was, the thing that yanked my chain the hardest was seeing that ignoramus
with his pointed head stuck up through a hole he had cut in the flag of the
United States of America, screaming about having ‘a bottle of scotch and
watching lots of crotch.’ Think about that.
“This is the same
flag that we pledge allegiance to. This is the flag that is draped over coffins
of dead young uniformed warriors killed while protecting Kid Crock’s bony butt.
He should be tarred and feathered, and ridden out of this country on a rail.
Talk about a good reality show, there’s one for you.
“The desire and will
of this Congress to meaningfully do anything about any of these so-called
social issues is non existent and embarrassingly disgraceful. The American
people are waiting and growing impatient with us. They want something done.
“I am pleased to be a
co-sponsor of S.J. Res. 26 along with Senator Allard and others, proposing an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage. And
S.1558, the Liberties Restoration Act, which declares religious liberty rights
in several ways, including the Pledge of Allegiance and the display of the Ten
Commandments. And today I join Senator Shelby and others with the Constitution
Restoration Act of 2004 that limits the jurisdiction of federal courts in
certain ways.
“In doing so, I stand
shoulder to shoulder not only with my Senate co-sponsors and Chief Justice Roy
Moore of Alabama but, more importantly, with our Founding Fathers in the
conception of religious liberty and the terribly wrong direction our modern
judiciary has taken us in.
"Everyone today
seems to think that the U.S. Constitution expressly provides for separation of
church and state. Ask any ten people if that’s not so. And I’ll bet you most of
them will say ‘Well, sure.’ And some will point out, ‘it’s in the First
Amendment.’
“Wrong! Read it! It
says, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Where is the word ‘separate’? Where are
the words ‘church’ or ‘state.’
“They are not there.
Never have been. Never intended to be. Read the Congressional Records during
that four-month period in 1789 when the amendment was being framed in Congress.
Clearly their intent was to prohibit a single denomination in exclusion of all
others, whether it was Anglican or Catholic or some other.
“I highly recommend a
great book entitled Original Intent by David Barton. It really gets into how
the actual members of Congress, who drafted the First Amendment, expected basic
Biblical principles and values to be present throughout public life and
society, not separate from it.
“It was Alexander
Hamilton who pointed out that ‘judges should be bound down by strict rules and
precedents, which serve to define and point out their duty.’ Bound down! That
is exactly what is needed to be done. There was not a single precedent cited
when school prayer was struck down in 1962.
“These judges who
legislate instead of adjudicate, do it without being responsible to one single
solitary voter for their actions. Among the signers of the Declaration of
Independence was a brilliant young physician from Pennsylvania named Benjamin
Rush.
“When Rush was
elected to that First Continental Congress, his close friend Benjamin Franklin
told him ‘We need you. . . we have a great task before us, assigned to us by
Providence.’ Today, 228 years later there is still a great task before us
assigned to us by Providence. Our Founding Fathers did not shirk their duty and
we can do no less.
“By the way, Benjamin
Rush was once asked a question that has long interested this Senator from
Georgia in particular. Dr. Rush was asked, are you a democrat or an aristocrat?
And the good doctor answered, ‘I am neither’. ‘I am a Christocrat. I believe
He, alone, who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.’ That reply
of Benjamin Rush is just as true today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was
in the year of our Lord 1776.
“So, if I am asked
why – with all the pressing problems this nation faces today – why am I pushing
these social issues and taking the Senate’s valuable time? I will answer:
Because, it is of the highest importance. Yes, there’s a deficit to be
concerned about in this country, a deficit of decency.
“So, as the sand
empties through my hourglass at warp speed – and with my time running out in
this Senate and on this earth, I feel compelled to speak out. For I truly
believe that at times like this, silence is not golden. It is yellow.”
Zell
Miller left the Senate shortly thereafter choosing not to seek reelection.
It
seems every day the deficit of which he spoke is growing larger. Politicians regularly seek out media
microphones to try and explain away their personal immorality, and every time
we accept their explanations the separation of God and state increases, just as
that deficit grows larger. We do not
need government to supply us with all the things that liberalism promises. Instead, we need government to model an
acceptance of moral rule and Divine guidance.
I defy anyone to show me the harm in that.