CHURCH AND STATE | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 30, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 26.

CHURCH AND STATE.

MANY sincere Christians of all denominations, but who are blinded by overzealousness, maintain that “the church should control this government,” and are striving in various ways to bring about the much-desired result. We occasionally meet these zealots, and at such times it may not be amiss to propound a few simple questions like the following, to readjust, if possible, the cogs in their thinking machinery:

Which denomination should control this government?
Why should any particular sect be granted a privilege denied to all the others?
Do you realize that you, as well as every other American citizen, would be deprived of individual and constitutional rights if any church were to control this government? and are you personally willing to make this sacrifice, especially if the union should occur with some sect other than the one you favor?
Can any church gain control of the government by other than political methods?
In such case which would be most likely to occur, a purification of politics, naturally corrupt, or would the church be prostituted and brought to the level of politics?
Any church having once gained control, how would she maintain it except by laws having a religious phase?
Would not those who could not conscientiously keep such religious laws be punished for violation of them?
Would not punishment in such case be a literal persecution for conscience’s sake? And such persecution once started, is not the logical conclusion of such a course, torture and death? (See Rev. 13:15–17.) Would this be any different from the Inquisition of the Dark Ages?
Can you find any Scripture authority where the divine Founder of the Christian church commanded her to gain control of any government? Is the doctrine of union of Church and State Christian?
Finally, having thoroughly digested the preceding questions, do you still believe that the church should control the government?

The Junior Order United American Mechanics sounds its voice in no uncertain tone on this grave question, which is being agitated with increased vigor in our land, and threatens the two pillars of our Constitution and republic—religious and civil liberty—in witness of which note the forcible language used in our Declaration of principles:—

We guarantee to every man the liberty of worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and would give every assistance to protect all in the exercise of this liberty, but we object most strenuously to the interference of any church, no matter under what name it may exist, in the temporal affairs of this country.

On this ground do we firmly and unalterably stand. We have two classes of opponents: one works craftily and in secret, knowing what they aim at, the other openly but blindly, who “know not what they do.” We bear malice towards none, ever striving to present the truth, knowing that should even the least of the denominations commit fornication by wedding the civil power, the offspring would surely be an American Papacy—for a union of the religious and civil principles is what constitutes a papacy, and it will always produce that result anywhere in this wide world.

The business of the church is to mind her own business: preach the Gospel, evangelize the world, and prepare men for citizenship in a better country, even an heavenly. She has no other mission, and if she attends strictly to bettering individuals, the masses and the government will be well able to take care of themselves and get along without her meddlesome interference.—American Banner.