Writing for the Washington Monthly, Stephen Waldman notes that 18th-century evangelicals sought out, and benefited greatly from, the separation of church and state at a time when they were a small minority surviving at the mercy of mainline Christian denominations. Without the separation, mainliners and theists could have wielded federal and state power against evangelicals.
Now that “conservative” evangelicals have gained disproportionate influence over American faith and politics, however, many of them want to abolish the very principles that preserved their religious freedom — and which now happen to preserve the religious freedom of mainline Christians and other faiths.
Hat tip: Talk to Action
What can you say, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Doesn’t matter who wields it.
The Religious Reich is just too greedy to recognize it – the love of mammon will be their undoing.
My father is a pastor and has been all of my life. For the most part he kept a strict separation between his political beliefs and his politics. He believes that God holds ministers accountable for what they teach and he didn’t want the responsibility of influencing the votes of his parishoners (besides he realized that if you encourage someone to vote for some candidate, they blame you for every bad decision the candidate makes but you get no credit for good decisions).
However, at some point in the 80’s he briefly mentioned the idea that maybe churches should be somewhat involved in influencing the positions taken by government. Maybe the government should defer to the churches on some issues.
I asked him, “Dad, when they decide on what religious beliefs the government will adopt, do you really think they’ll pick yours?”
That was the last time he toyed with that idea.
The Evangelicals who are trying to tear down the wall between politics and religion are playing with fire. Times change and political power shifts.