Caleb Cole
Forum 2
After reading and watching the presentation this week, you can really see how corrupt
America has gotten with relations of people having a free religion without the government
getting involved. To better understand the facet of Church and State, we need to see why sin is a
crime and why crimes are a sin. An example would be that murdering someone and stealing from
someone are apart of the Ten Commandments given from God, and murdering and stealing are
also against the law. An example of coveting, it’s apart of the Ten Commandments, but it’s not
against the law. “Crime is something that is set by social codes of the country” (Shahnawaz,
2015). Sin is a crime committed against God. So why are some of the Ten Commandments not
criminal in government? “Crime is the violation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
while a sin is any violation of God’s law” (Gingrich 2011)
We can see early on in our country’s existence that our founding fathers did not want a
state religion or a church of America. Having a country govern religion or support a specific
religion would in the long run turn into a socialist or dictatorship view of religion. As we look
back in history, we can see that most of the founding fathers were Christian for had Christian
principles. They wanted the people to be free to choose what religion to follow without the
government getting involved and prohibiting that practice. “Only when religion was truly free
could it be true religion, and only then could all other freedoms follow” (Gingrich 2011).
We can see in today’s culture that the government is trying to get involved in religious
activities. For example, trying to implement laws and restrictions on public prayer, bringing the
Bible to certain locations, etc. Our government was established for the people and by the people.
The people run the government and not the other way around. “For many the idea of faith and
freedom working together to bolster each other brings about cognitive dissonance. That’s
because in America today we have stepped backward to a cultural situation less like the earlier
times in our own country” (Metaxas, 66). When considering different policies and politics, the
difference between crime and sin needs to be considered. Separation of Church and State must
adhere to that the violations of manmade law are to be treated as a crime, but sinning against
God’s law is not a foundation for punishment of man. When the action violates the life, liberty,
and pursuit of happiness, the state needs to get involved. When the action violates God’s law, the
state does not need to get involved.
Shahnawaz, Malik. “Difference Between Crime and Sin,” 2015.
https://www.academia.edu/12039342/difference_between_Crime_and_Sin.
Gingrich, Newt. Religious Foundations and Core Beliefs, Moore, Johnnie. 2018. Liberty
University Blackboard site. https://learn.liberty.edu/.
Metaxas, E. (2017). If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty. New York:
Penguin Books, 66
Caleb,
At the time of the letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association states
did support churches through taxes. States like Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and
Georgia had “religious taxes were laid on all citizens, each of who was given the option of
designating his share to the church of his choice” [CITATION 20ht \l 1033 ]. This is one reason
for the 1st amendment and the Establishment Clause in that it could have been perceived as
competitive and somewhat reminiscent of government that the colonist had fled from and why
the Founders did not want to establish a church as it would infringe on state liberties and their
sovereign powers. The states citizens still had the power and freedom to fund the church that
they choose. Even the states understood the freedom that true religion would bring. We must not
forget that the Anti-Federalist wanted amendments to the Constitution out of fear the federal
government would become too powerful and take the states freedoms and sovereignty away from
them sending them back to a form a government they had earned freedom from.
I agree that to some extent government is easing its way into the church and that the
church is possibly being set up especially when it comes to same sex marriage. With that said we
the church are the reason for the problem we see. We brought the world into the church to church
the world. Sadly, it appears the world has churched us in the things of the world and believers
have accepted the worlds nature. This in my opinion has fractured the churches foundation.
Bibliography
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. n.d.
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel05.html (accessed March 30, 2020).
