Separation of God and government an illogical idea

Don’t believe the lie that faith has no place in government or politics.

In an election year, it’s politically correct to pretend that matters of faith and matters of public policy should somehow be kept separate.

That’s absurd. And it’s a bizarre charade that would puzzle, if not outrage, those who founded our country on Christian principles.

No need to take my word for it, though. Consider the words of George Washington in his Farewell Address as America’s first president: “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion … reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Two years later, in 1798, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence argued strongly that Christian principles remain the cornerstone of public policy making, including education.

“We profess to be republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government,” said Benjamin Rush. “That is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible.”

I beg your patience with the history lesson. Stay with me here.

In these days of moral relativity and tolerance of anything but absolute truth, we do well to remember that the concept of separating God from government is really man’s idea, not God’s.

And it’s a bad idea at that.

This matters, because in just 10 days, we’ll choose our next president and other leaders who will guide us through mine fields of economic crisis, war, terrorism and social policy. I, for one, prefer leaders who know what they believe personally and openly stand for it publicly, rather than those who pretend their personal faith can somehow be kept separate from their policy making.

The men and women who risked their lives and livelihoods to build the liberty we now enjoy would be astounded at how we’ve divorced faith in God from public policy.

Don’t believe me?

Here is an outsider’s view of this nation shortly after its birth: Alexis de Tocqueville came here from France, observed the American experiment, and penned a two-volume work called “Democracy in America.”

He saw that “the Americans combine the notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their minds that it is impossible to make them conceive one without the other … from the start, politics and religion have agreed and have not ceased to do so.”

Those are startling words today. But I’m guessing they were seen more as neutral observations when first published.

The notion of separating church and state is aimed at preventing government from mandating religious practice, not kicking God out of the public square entirely.

Frankly, there are personal implications to this extreme call for separation today. More and more of us Christians buy the lie that faith is merely a private matter that has no bearing on the workplace, relationships, how we vote, or how we’re governed.

We’ve been duped.

You and me, Christian friend, are either followers of Jesus Christ through and through or not at all. Christ is not a segment of life to be kept separate from everything else. He is life itself.

America faces some fairly daunting challenges in the months and years ahead. We ignore God’s role in those challenges at our own peril. These United States are a young nation by world standards, and by that measure it was not long ago when Americans believed their well-being ultimately depended upon the God they now ignore.

Patrick Henry, in 1799, said it better that I just did: “The great pillars of all government and of social life are virtue, morality and religion. This is the armor, and this alone, that renders us invincible.”