Francis Berger
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The Separation of Church and State is a One- Way Street

4/3/2020

6 Comments

 
Bruce Charlton drew attention to a rather uncomfortable truth on his blog yesterday. The birdemic crisis has divided institutions into two stark categories: essential and inessential.

Essential institutions providing the basic necessities of life, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, etc., have been permitted to stay open.

Social-distancing measures have mandated that institutions that do not provide the basic necessities of life close their doors as part of the overall effort to reduce the spread of the birdemic virus. 

This led Dr. Charlton to the following logical conclusion:

Ergo: Churches have been officially classified as inessential: declared so by the government; and their inessential nature is fully-agreed (without any peep of official resistance, or even reluctance, or demand for time-limit) by the church leadership.

​
In other words, churches around the West have basically declared that they place material considerations above spiritual considerations. They have also shown a perplexing willingness to bow down to and obey secular authority without the slightest protest. 

As Dr. Charlton points out in his post, Christian churches have basically announced that for the duration of this virus lockdown, man can live by bread alone.  

Of course not all Christians have a problem with the church closures. Most regard it is a prudent measure and are keeping the faith alive at home at the personal/family level. Put another way, the vast majority of Christians are looking to ride out the storm and will be more than happy to return to their respective churches when the birdemic blows over. 

But here's a question - Is that the best course of action for a serious Christian to take?

This question started me thinking about the whole notion of the separation of church and state, that is the philosophic and legal tenets that designate the political distance between religion and the nation state. The principle of keeping an arm's length underpins the entire concept of separating church and state.

As I understand it, the idea is to keep the institutions separated from each other thereby ensuring a sense of political neutrality that allows for the functioning of various organized religious institutions with the underlying insistence that these religious institutions refrain from pushing whatever religious authority they possess onto the public sphere or, more specifically, onto the secular running of the state. By the same token, the state would refrain from encroaching upon the authority of the church within the religious sphere.

Although this sounds achievable in theory, the practice of church and state separation reveals some rather uncomfortable truths. The state had abandoned its position of neutrality long before the birdemic crisis erupted and has succeeded in encroaching upon the authority of the church in the religious sphere in many meaningful and fundamental ways. Christian churches, in turn, have tended to acquiesce to these secular and material encroachments, almost without fail. Conversely, they have rarely launched any religious encroachments against the state in return.

Simply put, the separation of church and state has more or less been a one-way street of the secular state impinging upon the church and the church capitulating to the secular state.

Rather than being neutral, the secular state has proven that it is fundamentally antithetical to the church. Conversely, the church has proven it is not fundamentally antithetical to the secular state. 

At a higher level of analysis, the secular state is antithetical to God. If the church understands that the state is antithetical to it and does not respond to this opposition in an appropriate manner, then what is the church's real position on God? 

Christian churches in the West were presented with a real and rare opportunity when the birdemic crisis broke out. After centuries of going along with and caving into the secular state, the churches were presented with a once-in-an-era opportunity to substantiate their legitimacy, validity, and authority. Put another way, they had a chance to prove themselves to their congregations and, most importantly, to God. 

And they blew it.

​Big time.

The actions Christian churches have taken demonstrate one thing above all else - the separation between church and state is a sham. The church and the state are one - and in this most comfortable of unions, it is the religion of the state that rules. 

State religion has decreed that man shall live on bread alone. By closing their doors to their congregations, churches have essentially confirmed the secular state's axiom.

Man shall indeed live on bread alone.

Serious Christians understand the opposite is true. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. 

Which is why all serious Christians need to question whether the mouth of God still resides within churches.

If not, then churches truly have become inessential.
6 Comments
bruce charlton
4/3/2020 12:13:19

Thanks - you have taken this further to somwhere I had not consciously recognised; but now you've pointed it out seems clearly true.

I have always felt that the 'principle' of church state separation - which began in The West with the Great Schism c1000 AD - has always been incoherent, and often dishonest, fraudulent.

In contrast, the 'harmony' of church and state as practised in the Eastern Orthodox nations (and by Islam) is much more coherent - it was also the actuality of the early years of the Church of England - from Henry VIII (bad start!) to Charles I (martyr and saint) - the idea being that the monarch was not a priest but head of the church and a kind-of Apostle; under divine guidance, divinely ordained by the chief priest (who the monarch appointed - but who could in principle - and sometimes in practice - excommunicate and de-legitimise the monarch.

My point is not about expediency, but coherence - sometimes it worked well, sometimes badly (like any system, the results depend on individuals); but that qua system it was not intrinsically antagonistic and unstable, as is the church-state division of Western Christianity.

BTW - in an excellent book called Shakespeare on Toast, by Ben Crystal - he demonstrates how when Shakespeare wrote a half-line like Romeo's he would have expected it (in performance) to have been continued on from Tybalt's half line, without pause, and continuing the pulse and completing of the iambic pentameter.

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bruce charlton
4/3/2020 12:23:59

I read this after your 'This shall determine that' post; but while I was reading 'this determines that' I was led directly into thinking about the Christian Churches; and how they were 'stampeded' into closing, without considering the consequences.

What that shows in their frame of mind, which is habitually materialistic; it also shows that they lack a coherent world view, lack the capacity for sustained consecutive thinking, have an automatic trust of politicians and the media.

They have no created a situation for churches from which it will be extremely difficult and 'costly' (in multiple ways) to extricate themselves (or else that may be impossible) - not least, they have ensured that their own power, status... their own actual jobs are likely to suffer either massive reductions - or else to disappear altogether.

It was, in sum, a very short-termist and selfish decision even in purely *worldly* terms! As they will surely discover for themselves. And they will also discover that newly sacked ex pastors priests, bishops will have a very low *market value* (and will elecit very little sympathy) in whatever world comes next - whether that world be secular - but *especially* if that world be genuinely Christian.

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Francis Berger
4/3/2020 14:38:42

Thanks for the excellent comments, Bruce. I hadn't considered the consequences for the clergy specifically, but I have a feeling you may be right. They will surely suffer some loss of status going forward.

I'll have to address this in a future post, but one thing I neglected to mention about the church closures is that none of it makes me happy. That is, I derive no satisfaction from contemplating these things. I would much prefer a future where the churches played an active role in the future of Christianity, but it has become painfully evident to me that churches have no real role in this future.

I do not criticize the churches out of spite or resentment, but out of the simple acceptance that they no longer add anything meaningful or necessary to the further development of Christianity.

My greatest fear is this - some people will be tempted to abandon Christianity over this. That would be a big mistake. I tend to look at more like this - you don't curse a pair of shoes that you have worn down or have grown. You take them off, thank them for what they have provided, and set about acquiring another pair of shoes so that you may continue your journey. You certainly wouldn't consider lopping off your feet!

But I have the impression the next stage of Christianity will require much more than a new pair of shoes - it might require learning how to fly or something comparable (metaphorically speaking, of course).

In essence, it will come down to something like your idea of Romantic Christianity - Berdyaev's notions of the third religious epoch. Something of that nature must be the way forward - and this way forward will not require conventional churches.

Reply
Francis Berger
4/3/2020 14:40:32

shoes you have outgrown, I meant.

bruce charlton
4/3/2020 14:49:33

"one thing I neglected to mention about the church closures is that none of it makes me happy. That is, I derive no satisfaction from contemplating these things."

Absolutely. Although I myself do not have much to do with a church - I do nonetheless financially contribute to a church, attend at least every couple of months, and have close family members who are extremely closely involved with two different types of Anglican church (one evangelical, the other Anglo Catholic). I would have liked nothing more than for the Christian churches to have been revitalised by increased activity with a genuine response (rather than this fake excuse) to a significant crisis - I mean by increased frequency church attendance, increased meetings of groups, study, visiting, evangelism etc. - those things that churches have been doing for 100s of years.

Instead All of this has stopped.

Reply
Terry Dietzler
5/24/2020 00:45:19

What Would Bonhoeffer Do?

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