There are two adages which states, “Politics make strange bedfellows” and “oil and water don’t mix”. Although they’re not scriptural, they make a lot of sense. There has been a consistent debate as to the separation of church and state. What it is actually is the use of religious ideology by those who see their way as being the only way. It’s rather frightening considering the fact that this country is trying to stop others abroad for practicing the same thing, especially by a Republican administration. As I’ve stated before, religion and spirituality are two different things. I had a key chain that read, “I’m not religious, I just love the Lord”. Those who came to this country were trying to escape the same form of tyranny that the Republicans, especially the conservative wing, are trying to enforce. Grown people, known as adults, are not allowed to make decisions for “their” lives if the conservative religious factions don’t agree with it. Are they forgetting that Father loves the sinner and not the sin? “Comprehension is not a prerequisite for cooperation”, a quote from Matrix Reloaded. We should never compromise treating another human being as such because we don’t understand their way of being, thus the separation of church and state. It is the responsibility of the state and federal government to protect the weakest segments of our society against those who would do any form of harm. Take for instance the Civil Rights movement to which the weaker segment at that time was African-Americans who were denied the rights of just being treated as human beings. Martin Luther King, Jr. and some ministers, African-Americans and Caucasian alike, fought for what is supposed to be a God given right; to be treated with dignity as another human being, a creation of GOD but it was the federal government who stepped in to solidify what the national church body failed to do, ensure that its citizens of color would no longer be treated as less than those who wanted to do harm. It is interesting that those opposed to the separation of church and state had no qualms in trying to protect their way of being while denying the rights of another during the Civil Rights era and many of them have not changed their way of thought or being.
Jesus Christ said, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”[1], which shows in itself that religion/spirituality and the government should be kept as two separate entities and each given its rightful due diligence yet one marries in the church but receive a divorce by the state represented by the courts. The conservatives fail to realize that forcing prayer in schools is against the teaching of Jesus Christ, Who tells us to separate ourselves[2]. He Himself had nothing to do with the politics or politicians of His day. He went as far as telling His followers, “take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees”,[3] and it is later explained this way, “then they (the followers) understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of the bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees”[4]. It doesn’t make sense to force religion into schools or any other secular venue when those forcing it don’t even live by the standards established by Christ. Another prime example is the fact that if the federal government decides to go to war, the military have to follow the orders of the Commander-in-Chief yet as Christians, we are forbidden to kill. The waters are indeed murky when it comes to this topic of discussion but I must remind everyone that there is indeed a difference between religion and spirituality. Religion and those who follow it have a deluded sense of assuming that they have the “God” connection and of using their religion to make themselves feel and look better but they are forgetting that a great many evils have been committed in the Name of God, Allah or any other religious cover. Spirituality is a quiet calmness of life that one lives knowing Who they depend on, living to serve others as Christ did. “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh”[5] and “beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basis principle of the world and not according to Christ”.[6]
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