They are not; otherwise the founders of this nation would not have provided for a separation so vital to the maintenance of religious freedom.
It is fundamental in the American system of government that there shall be no union of church and state. This principle, however, while approved in theory, is often denied in practice. Hazy ideas prevail as to its application. Preaching of religion is mixed with preaching of politics, sin is confused with crime, and in a great degree the distinction is obliterated between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms of this world.
The example of an influential clergyman of a California metropolis furnishes an illustration. This prominent representative of a great Protestant denomination has habitually, for a long period, been giving attention from his pulpit to the affairs of the city government, indulging in much denunciation and demands for reform. This was carried to the point where the charge was made that the city government was virtually being administered from his pulpit, and a mass meeting of citizens was called to consider the situation. Never a doubt was felt by this pastor or his congregation that such an attitude on the part of a clergyman was not in full harmony with American principles of government and the precepts of Christianity.
A MISUNDERSTOOD CALLING
Did not Christ scathingly rebuke the scribes and Pharisees? Did He not denounce the wicked cities of Galilee? Are not the Christian clergy, therefore, called upon to denounce corruption in civic affairs? Are they not fully justified in so doing? If not, how are American principles of government to be understood?
Separation of church and state does not mean that there must be separate classes of society, one class standing for the church and the other for the state. The best American citizens are members of a church. The same individuals represent both the church and the state; those composing the one also compose the other.
Church and state occupy, however, distinct and separate spheres, and separation of the two is a proper recognition of this fact. That is why the founders of this nation, themselves Christian men and church members, provided for such separation in the government. This does not imply any antagonism between the two, or forbid co-operation between them for the promotion of human welfare.
The sphere of the church is that of man's relation to God; the sphere of the state is that of man's relation to man. These are covered by two separate and distinct governments, one being the divine government, the other being human government in its various forms.
Transgression of the law of the divine government is sin; transgression of human law is crime. A sinful act may be and often is also a crime; but the law of God is vastly more comprehensive than man's law. It has jurisdiction over the heart. Evil thoughts and desires—covetousness, hatred, lust—are sins; they are not crimes until they blossom into overt acts.
GREAT DIFFERENCES
The purpose of the divine government, as represented by Christianity, is to save people from sin—their own sin, be it noted; the purpose of human government, so far as it concerns crime, is to save people from the wrongdoing of others. There is a vast difference between the proper dealing with an act as a sin and the dealing with the same act as a crime; and this difference should be clearly understood and kept in mind.
The divine government, in dealing with sin, seeks to save the offender from the penalty of his deed; human government, in dealing with crime, seeks to inflict the penalty upon the offender. Civil government cannot therefore deal with an act as sin; and when it undertakes to do so, it works directly against the divine government. When a sin is also a crime, the state punishes the transgressor for the act because he violated a law made to safeguard human rights, and not because the individual failed in his duty toward God.
The Almighty is able to run His government without the assistance of any man.
The divine government can and must provide forgiveness for the transgressor; for civil government to do likewise would be suicidal. To inflict the penalty of sin would defeat the purpose of Christianity; not to inflict the penalty of crime would defeat the purpose of civil government. God, who alone has authority to fix the penalty of transgression against Him, will in His own time and way inflict the penalty of sin. The best civil government, on the other hand, is that which most quickly, as well as surely and adequately, punishes the criminal for his crime.
The divine government operates by faith and love; civil government operates by force. Christianity entreats, the state commands. The divine government employs divine agencies—God, angels, the Holy Spirit; the state has none of these at its command, but operates through legislation, the courts, and the police.
Without these facts and distinctions before him, an individual may easily confuse the nature, purpose, and methods of the divine government with those of civil government, and have a union of church and state within himself. He is then prepared to believe that the cause of Christianity can and should be advanced by legislation.
THE CLERGY AS AMBASSADORS
As a citizen, a clergyman stands on a level with all other citizens in being entitled to his opinions regarding civic affairs, and to the liberty of expressing them; but he should not forget that as a clergyman he is an ambassador of the kingdom of God, and that as such, he is concerned not with civil government but with the divine government, not with crime but with sin.
From the standpoint of Christianity, the clergyman sees in sin a far greater menace to the welfare of humanity than exists in bad government. Believing that Christians are “the salt of the earth,” as Christ declared, he sees in them the only means by which the world is saved from destruction, as Sodom would have been saved by the presence in it of ten righteous persons. Believing them to be also “the light of the world,” he sees in the Christian church the only agency through which the way of escape from divine wrath is revealed to those yet in their sins. Hence he is far more concerned for the extension of Christ’s kingdom in the earth than for the reformation of earthly governments, more concerned for the cleansing of human hearts than for the purification of politics.
From the standpoint of Christianity also, the clergyman sees the deadly menace to humanity of sin in its “respectable” forms. He does not believe that his flock are about right in the sight of God because they rank high in society. He has in mind what the Bible says about such sins as pride and covetousness as exemplified in the lives of4Balaam and Judas. Christ denounced the scribes and Pharisees, not as criminals, but as sinners; He rebuked their pride and hypocrisy. He denounced Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, not because their city government was bad, but because of their unbelief and rejection of light. These sins were not crimes, and did not detract at all from the respectability and good standing of their inhabitants in society; yet as surely as the words of Christ are true, these sins brought upon them, and will bring upon all who practice them to-day, a worse fate than overtook Sodom when brimstone and fire were rained upon it from heaven.
REPRESENTATIVES OF CHRIST
Neither Christ nor His apostles spent any time preaching against crime as such, or in promoting reformation in civil government, although they lived under as corrupt a government, probably, as any that ever existed. They were dealing not with temporal matters but with the things of eternity, and were intensely concerned, not for the salvation of human institutions, but of human souls. Significant of this is the fact that while Christ never denounced political offenders nor made any move for a reformation in civil government, He did on two occasions cleanse the temple of God, using a whip of small cords to drive out the unrighteous characters found within it. Christ’s representatives to-day cannot do better than to follow His example. If the temple of God—the church—can be kept pure, and the gospel of salvation from sin proclaimed in the world as widely and earnestly as the situation demands, the Christian clergy will have all their energies called into service, all their time occupied, and every legitimate ambition satisfied with the result.
