Separation of Church and State: It's a Two-way Street

I believe it is irrational to live with the expectation that government should/will stay out of our religious affairs and simultaneously hold that our system of government and laws should embody all our religious beliefs. We stumble when we try to impose faith into the American Way. Right now, the American Way is the right to life, liberty and property. We need to be very cautious where our religious views trample on the freedoms of those who do not hold our same convictions, so far as it pertains to their own person. Am I calling for us to hide our convictions? By no means!

Our founding fathers recognized that we are a nation of people entitled to a "separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them." That was not a proclamation that government should be an extension of God. That would have established a Theocracy. The very words "under God" echoed by Gen. George Washington (in many of his military orders), by President Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address and added to our Pledge of Allegiance do not make our government a religious entity. They humbly acknowledge our government is secondary in directing the affairs of men. It recognizes that man answers ultimately to his creator and not the state. Government should not become the primary director of the affairs of man.

When implementing a separation of church and state, it comes down to deciding which mechanism is better equipped to solve moral issues in a society. Here is where we must decide if we have an implied directive to force our Christian moral view on society by way of government or be a catalyst for change through the ordering of our own affairs by way of the church. For me, it is clearly the church. Especially in areas of such highly contested public debate; abortion, drug use, homosexuality, marriage and other issues that are individualistic in nature. Even though I hold absolutes about these issues, it is hard for me to put my "Nebuchadnezzar" shoes on and force others into the furnace of my convictions on matters that affect their free private person. Would I wish them to share my ethics and beliefs? Absolutely!

I would hope elected officials (whom I vote for) would use similar ethics as mine in guiding their decisions but with the wisdom to avoid forcing a total religious bias on law.

I believe it should not be the state who decides what is intrinsically a person's private matter. In other words, things between them and God. Issues that primarily affect the individual. The only issues that should be governed by the state are moral issues that affect the interactions between individuals, states or other governments. All other issues should be worked out among individuals and where there is disagreement, our courts are provided to settle grievances.