Are We Moving Toward a "State Church" in America?

Supreme Court Bldg.

I write today for the sole reason of giving warning and scriptural edification. Now more than ever the church of the Lord Jesus Christ must stand up and make our voices heard across this land concerning the states involvement in the affairs of the church and Christian conscience and conviction. To begin we need to understand the context of the phrase "Separation of Church and State." For too long non-Christian movements have ran with this banner as a way of pushing back Christian expression and practice, but that banner is a two-way street. It's time the tables were turned and we say to the State that they have no right to dictate the conscience of the church. So where did the phrase originate and what was it's context?

In 1802 the venerable Thomas Jefferson wrote the following words to the Danbury Baptist Association:

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen,

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.

It was from this letter that the phrase "Separation of Church and State" was drawn. Clearly, in the letter, it was Mr. Jefferson's opinion that the State had no right to bring jurisprudence into the church. The phrase "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," (taken from the "Establishment Clause" of the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution) clearly tells us that the legislature was never to establish a "State" religion such as our pioneer and founding forefathers fled from in Europe and neither were they to "prohibit" the "free" exercise of religious belief. It is this phrase alone that Jefferson attributed to his belief that a wall had been built clearly dividing the roles and responsibilities of our government from those of the church.

Fast Forward 213 Years
In a few months the Supreme Court of the United States will announce and legislate a decision concerning the state of "Same Sex Marriage" in America. What they legislate is bound to have ramifications on the involvement of the "State" and the "Church." If they rule unreservedly in favor of the "gay activists" who demand that all states in the union recognize gay marriage as on par with traditional (biblical) marriage, and fail to add a clause that exempts churches from participation, but instead, forces churches to comply, then we will have for the first time the birth of the "State Church" of the United States. No longer will churches have a complete say in what can and cannot be performed in their fellowships. Instead, church constitutions will need to be amended to only practicing what the state deems as permissible. Never mind the Bible, never mind God, and never mind what your pastor says, the church will now be run by the state.

Is that What We Want? Is that What or Founding Fathers Wanted?
No, and never. They called for a government that would never establish a "State Religion" one free from dictating the laws of conscience in the church. Today groups like the FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation), and AHA (American Humanist Association), purposely seek out cases to try and remove Christianity from any form of public life. Ironically, and to the dismay of believers and the trampling of our inalienable constitutional rights, they and the LGBT movement through their engagement of the courts are helping to create this new "State Church of the United States." When our courts legislate on what the church can or cannot do they become the pontiffs of this new church.

What the FFRF, AHA, and LGBT movements seek to enforce they have inadvertently and unreservedly enabled. They seek to eliminate the state from involvement with religion, yet they seek the courts to legislate on religion--to put laws in place that force their beliefs and the beliefs of the court on the church. They seek the state and national courts for the removal religious symbols, nativity scenes, crosses, and Scripture from all public premises and in doing so create laws that dictate to the church and believers what we can and cannot do.

I am asking believers all over our blessed nation to pray for our leaders and to stand up and be counted in the face of Jesus our Lord; to put an end to the foolishness of state involvement in religion, religious practices, and the inalienable right of religious conviction. If we do not stop this freight train from hell right now we and our children will pay a heavy price in the future.

The church needs to coalesce around this one topic to get the courts out of church affairs and the dictates of Christian conviction.

God Bless

For more on this topic and where the church currently stands consider purchasing a copy of "The Sifted Generation" by this author as soon as it comes available.

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