When our founding fathers dedicated the Church as an institution, they were building a
foundation that would create an appropriate relationship between the institution of the Church
and State. Because they fervently believed that our rights come from an almighty God, they felt
that adopting a Church and State would bring a heathy balance to political activities, policies and
to the law of the land.
Besides the political balance to the State and Church, many of our founding fathers were
dedicated believers themselves. They believed that people needed something to believe so they
could continue building the path of this great nation. Founding father and second president John
Adams believed that religion was necessary to the success of America. He said that “the secret to
self-government is that people must themselves be self-governing, which is to say they must be
motivated by something beyond the law. Each individual must govern himself, and for this
morality was plainly necessary” (Metaxas 2016, 61). Our founding fathers deeply understood
that it wasn’t the law that makes people do what was right but Christian principles and moral
standards. Even Tocqueville stated that there was “no country in the world where the Christian
religion retains greater influence over souls of men than in America” (Metaxas 2016, 62).
Professor of Political Science Mark David Hall stated that “while America did not have a
Christian Founding in the sense of creating a theocracy, its Founding was deeply shaped by
Christians moral truths. More important, it created a regime that was hospitable to Christians, but
also to practitioners of other religions” (Hall 2011).
Russel Moore asserts that “Millennial and post-Millennial Christians are walking away from the
political process…” Although our government was designed with a separation of Church and
State, it also allows us the freedom to live out our faith convictions as individuals, influencing
our government and the way it operates by the way we speak, the way we live and most
importantly, the way we vote. In the Bible, Apostle Paul commended us to live out our faith
when he said “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatian 5:22-23).
We must live our faith not only in our homes and church but we must continue to model our faith
in our jobs and in our political worldview. We do this in the way we vote, who we are voting for
and by carefully selecting political candidates on the grounds on which they stand. I don’t
believe that our founding fathers would support the idea of the church pulling back from its
political involvement. I believe if they knew the current state of our country today, they would
instruct us to continue being involved as the Church.
Earlier I mentioned that the whole point of the Church and State was to have the balance
between one another, but I’m afraid today the Church has lost much of its power. The
government, which is supposed to be for the people by the people is now overstepping its
boundaries. Our founding fathers made great sacrifices for us to be able to have freedom of
religion and we must not take it lightly. During his interview, Newt Gingrich stated that Thomas
Jefferson would say that our current system is remarkably dangerous to our freedom (Gingrich
2011). Today many feel that the Church no longer has its voice. The Church today experiences
pressure by the state to perform gay marriages, support the evil act of abortion, pay for abortions
with our tax money and recently we have been threatened to lose tax exemption if the church
won’t follow new laws that violate their beliefs. As believers, we must become involved in order
to re-establish that healthy balance and relationship between Church and State.
Bibliography
Gingrich, Newt. 2011. Documents of the Exceptional. Interview by Johnnie Moore. Liberty
University Blackboard site. https://learn.liberty.edu/.
Hall, Mark. “Did American Have a Christian Findings?” The Heritage Foundation. June 7, 2011.
https://www.heritage.org/political-process/report/did-america-have-christian-founding
Metaxas, Eric. If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty. New York: Viking,
2016. Print.
Moore, Russell. “Should We Pull Back from Politics?” Russell Moore. October 23, 2013.
https://www.russellmoore.com/2013/10/23/should-we-pull-back-from-politics/
