Benjamin Cremer is a Wesleyan minister in Idaho. He posted an important commentary, making the Christian case for separation of church and state.
I believe in the separation of church and state as a Christian, not because I’m against Christianity, but because I know the history of Christianity.
It is because I have studied all about the tremendous harm that is caused whenever the church crawls into bed with the empire. The crusades, inquisitions, genocides, slavery, and subjugation of women, and persecution of people who don’t believe the way “the church” demands, all done in the name of “preserving our Christian faith.”
Whenever a government mandates Christianity, it ceases to be a matter of faith pursued by human freewill and therefore it ceases to have anything to do with Jesus and just becomes another tool to oppress people that are seen as “outsiders” by those in power.
I believe in the separation of church and state because of the teachings of Jesus. One of them being, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
So if I wouldn’t want another religious group mandating my civic life, legislating their scriptures to be read in our public schools to my children or posting the commands from their god on public spaces, then I wouldn’t want that done with my religion either to people from other religious and nonreligious backgrounds.
I believe in the separation of church and state because there are numerous Christian sects within our country alone, let alone within the entire world. Each sect has their own unique theology and interpretation of the Bible. So which Christian sect gets to dictate the kind of Christianity that is mandated?
As a Protestant, I don’t want my civic life to be mandated by Catholics, nor would Catholics want their civic life mandated by Protestants. We’ve seen the horrors of that fight already in the conflicts since the Protestant reformation.
As a Christian in the Wesleyan tradition, I don’t want my civic life mandated by Calvinist Christians or Baptists or Fundamentalists. As I am sure they wouldn’t want their civic life dictated by Wesleyan Christians either.
Just imagine if Amish Christianity was mandated over all civic life. How would you feel about a “Christian nation” that made sure you couldn’t use your car or any modern technology? Now apply that same logic to certain Christian sects dictating public education or the decisions people can make regarding their own healthcare.
History has shown us that mandating one form of Christianity through the government leads to oppressing all outsiders, which even includes faithful Christians from other traditions as well.
That is another part of Christian history we often forget. Before the United States was founded, many fled here from a “Christian nation,” which was Britain, which was mandating one form of Christianity over everyone else. Repeating that here would be to not only ignore the reasons why many people came here in the first place, but it would just show the world that we refuse to learn from our mistakes in the past and repent from them.
As an American and a believer in the 1st Amendment, I believe everyone should be free to live according to their own beliefs and not be mandated by the government to live according to a set of beliefs from a single religious group. Including my own. Only a government that is free from religious control can guarantee religious freedom for all.
This is why I believe in the separation of church and state and I am staunchly opposed to Christian Nationalism, which is both unAmerican and unChristian. Not only does it violate religious freedom, but Jesus called us to love our neighbors as ourselves, which I believe includes not shoving our religion down their throats and dictating their life decisions by mandate of law. That is simply not loving at all.
This is why I believe it is a bankrupt Christianity that insists on legislating its beliefs over everyone else. It is a hypocritical Christianity that demands things like everyone be subjected to Bible readings and the Ten Commandments in our public schools, yet would claim to be “persecuted” if another religion did those exact same things.
I deeply believe that when we Christians arrive at the point of needing our beliefs mandated by the government, it is because we have ultimately concluded that the truth of the message we claim to have from Jesus no longer has the power to stand on its own merit, so we need the government to do it for us instead. It declares to the world that we don’t actually believe in the power of our beliefs at all. It declares to the world that the church has failed to be the church on its own, failing to rely on the power of God, and therefore needs the government to intervene.
Far too many people in our society have witnessed a kind of Christianity that insists its particular beliefs need to be legislated over others, yet opposes legislation that would help hungry students be fed in schools, bring increased wages for people working to take care of their families, paid family leave, affordable childcare, healthcare for all, teachers being paid well, curbing gun violence, funding the education system better and supporting it rather than vilifying it and constantly attacking it, or caring for our planet, and the list goes on and on.
Is this the kind of selfish and callous reputation we want as Christians? Where we see the government as a tool only to mandate our particular beliefs instead of seeing it as an opportunity to work together towards a society where all people are free, don’t have to struggle to just have their basic needs met, and can live flourishing lives?
Is that the kind of legacy we want to leave behind? Are we really that fearful of other beliefs stamping out the gospel of Jesus that we have to resort to government mandates and using taxpayer dollars to legislate our beliefs? Isn’t that just functioning out of fear rather than faith?
I encourage anyone who is unsure about this topic to go study church history for themselves. You can begin with the Holy Roman Empire and the Doctrine of Discovery. Or even more recently the British Empire and Christian imperialism and colonialism. We have tried having nations run by a Christian sect far too many times before and we must learn from those examples or we will repeat them.
I encourage all Christians to consider how we might be destroying the very gospel we claim to hold so dear by wanting it mandated over others rather than living it out ourselves. Because mandating our beliefs by force of law against people’s free will is one of the most effective ways of causing people to reject the God we claim to believe in with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I believe in the separation of church and state because it not only allows the church to be the church and the state to be the state, but it also prevents the church from giving into the temptation to worship political power and allows it to faithfully embody the gospel of Jesus, including speaking truth to the powers of this world. The church simply can’t speak truth to the power of the state when it has become one with the power of the state.
Jesus rejected Satan’s temptation to control the kingdoms of this world and I believe we as his followers should too.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” -Jesus
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is not just church history that argues this way. When the US Constitution was being debated in the states, the evangelical religions supported separation of church and state! Their reasoning was if the major denominations got government support, their support would dry up. Now that they are more “major” they have changed their tune, wanting to use government money to expand their churches at the cost of others.
Of course they haven’t thought things through. If churches become gov’t sponsored, well Utah will be a Mormon state and Catholics hold a majority in many other states, so I wonder how evangelicals would feel about paying taxes to be funneled into Catholic coffers?
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I wish more religious groups saw faith the same way Cremer expresses in this post. Religion should be a personal choice based on individual belief and freedom. Whenever religion becomes entangled with governance, it impedes freedom. Cremer cites many examples of this perversion of religion which has cost many lives through intolerance and violence.
Our founders had it right. Government should protect everyone’s right to practice what people believe, but the government should be separate and secular. These Christian Nationalists have twisted the teachings of Christianity to suit their own political agenda. By imposing their beliefs on others, they are undermining religious liberty and causing social and political regression while attacking vulnerable members of society. These are hardly the teachings of Jesus.
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Very eloquent thoughtful commentary.
Trump’s alleged Christian followers worship a petty, angry, fear-filled deity created in THEIR own image.
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Birdchum,
Trump’s MAGA base has nothing in common with the teachings of Jesus.
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No, they don’t. Yet I know people who think that G_d saved Trump.
It’s very frightening.
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When religious doctrine becomes coercive, it is no longer about free will. It is about control which often aligns with authoritarian regimes.
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As I shake my head reading this.
Religious faith beliefs, especially the Abrahamic ones since that is what the vast majority in the USA believe, but let’s stick with xtianity since that is what is discussed, or follow are no different than belief than those of the tRump MAGA cult. And actually from what I can perceive it’s the xtian faith beliefs that acculturate people into believing absurdities (do I need to list them all?), Middle Eastern desert tribal myths, and outright false historical narratives (no the bible doesn’t count as an historical document outside of the Abrahamic belief systems) that are precursors to being indoctrinated into the tRump cult.
And those who do not share those beliefs are expected to revere in awe the faith of xtians. It’s considered impolite, rude to question those beliefs. Where is morality in believing falsehood, mythologies and absurdities? Hint: there isn’t any. One’s sense of morality stems from being human, nothing more, as the evolutionary process has provided. Can we overcome some of the negative evolutionary results? Yes, through a culture that is based on rationo-logical questioning and thought. Has it happened yet? No, because of that underlying indoctrination of 9/10 people into religious faith beliefs.
Some break free from that indoctrination, just as all cults have some members who finally realize the insanity of the cult. Until Homo Supposedly Sapiens break free from those cult faith beliefs humans don’t stand a chance to make a better, more equitable society for all.
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The Puritans did not come to Massachusetts to establish religious liberty. Else they would not have burned Quakers and driven dissident believers to Connecticut and Rhode Island. They came to institute their own religion.
Similar activities occurred in other colonies, with Pennsylvania being an exception.
Baptists in Virginia appealed to their representatives on the subject of freedom of religion. Thomas Jefferson assured them of a wall between church and state at the national level. Rhode Island refused to adopt the Constitution without the Bill of Rights.
Nevertheless, there were established churches in some states even after the Constitution was ratified. It’s the 14th Amendment that ensures our liberties as US citizens also applies to us as citizens of a state.
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Massachusetts was the last state to abolish its established church.
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Hopefully the lawsuit filed by a number of Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) entities with some other organizations regarding ICE going into houses of worship and ignoring Sanctuary will be productive.
New England Yearly Meeting
Baltimore Yearly Meeting
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Richmond Friends Meeting
are some of the participants.
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Terrific speech from Rev Benjamin Cremer.
I have to admit my tendency is to the pragmatic, with a focus on the economic system—and how it affects our educational system. My concern that church be separated from state has mainly focused on the problems issuing from govtl support of religious education. My POV reflects that of Pastors for TX Children (a viewpoint once shared by US Catholic hierarchy, before they became married to public support of their schools, to prop up monies lost due to declining congregations). That is, once the public is invested in religious schools, taxpayers will inevitably [& appropriately] impose govtl control of how funds are spent & begin imposing their own standards on religious education. Thus impinging on religious precepts. Exactly what happens when you want somebody else to pay the bills.
Rev Cremer cuts to the chase. He’s talking about religious control of the nation—the big picture. “Only a government that is free from religious control can guarantee religious freedom for all… I deeply believe that when we Christians arrive at the point of needing our beliefs mandated by the government, it is because we have ultimately concluded that the truth of the message we claim to have from Jesus no longer has the power to stand on its own merit, so we need the government to do it for us instead.”
I’m not sure how much of this is happening at the national level at this point. One could point to Dobbs decision, but then wiggle away from that as “sending it back to the states.” But I am concerned about Trump’s 1/29 EO “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” Section 4 on “Promoting Patriotic Education.” It does not mention Christianity, but seems to me to substitute patriotism for religion, so it’s not far off. And could conceivably advance to that.
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