What Does It Mean to Separate Church and State?

Exodus 33:12-23; Matthew 22:15-22

            It was September 25, 1789.  James Madison presented to the First Federal Congress of the United States twelve amendments to the Constitution.  The first two failed.  Articles three through twelve, known as the Bill of Rights, became the first ten amendments to the U. S. Constitution.  They guaranteed essential rights and liberties to the citizens of our land.  This, in part, is the first:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….

          Now, over 230 years later, the debate concerning the separation of church and state continues to rage and enrage.  Should a federal judge be permitted to display the Ten Commandments or any other religious documents in support of one religion in his or her courtroom?  Should state owned schools sponsor or organize public prayers at football games or graduation ceremonies if the prayers are in support of one religion?  May the local courthouse display a Nativity scene or a menorah on the front lawn during the holidays?  These are but a few of the religious liberty issues our country struggles with today, and they are fraught with emotion and conflict.

          I have said before that I am Baptist.  To the core of my being.  You cut me and I bleed Baptist.  What would ooze from that open wound is freedom.  Freedom courses through all our core Baptist beliefs.  Someone has called the Priesthood of the Believer our firstborn child.  It is your right and responsibility, your freedom, to deal directly with God.  The Autonomy of the Local Church is our church’s right and responsibility, our freedom, to set its own direction without the undue influence of any outside body, ecclesiastical or secular.  It has also been said that if the Priesthood of the Believer is our firstborn child, then the concept of religious liberty, the separation of church and state, is like Jacob in the Old Testament, holding onto the heel of his twin brother Esau when Esau was born.

          Many historians suggest that this concept of religious liberty is Baptists’ greatest contribution to the world.  Here’s why it was so important to us.  We were non-conformists.  We were the ones flogged in the town square.  We were the ones put in prison.  We were the ones run out of town.  So our forefathers and mothers demanded religious liberty for all, believing that for religion to be real it must be freely chosen.  The state, they insisted, had no right to legislate their membership in a particular church.  The state had no right to coerce their beliefs, their conscience, in any way.  Therefore, our forefathers and mothers believed in freedom of religion, freedom for religion, and freedom from religion.

          Robert Baker, a Southern Baptist historian, said in 1958, "The first appeal for religious liberty in the English language came from Baptists."  (The Baptist March in History, p. 128)  Of course, he was referring to people like Thomas Helwys who in 1612 went to prison because he dared challenge the right of King James I to force people into the Church of England by state decree.  The King declared, “I will make them conform themselves, or I will harrie them out of the land….”  (Report from the Capital, May, 1989)  Helwys was considered a dangerous radical because he believed a person ought to be free to choose his or her own church and beliefs. 

          By the way, Thomas Helwys died in that prison.  The next time you read literature from the publishing house Smyth and Helwys, remember his sacrifice.

          Robert Baker was also referring to people like John Bunyan, who in 1660, was arrested by King Charles I and languished in a Bedford prison for twelve years, all because Bunyan believed church and state should be separate.  He was freed when Parliament passed the 1672 Indulgence, giving dissenters a one year respite.  Who knows how long he would have been in prison.  Perhaps he too would have died there.

          Roger Williams in 1644 challenged the state church in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Did you know that we had state sponsored churches in this country at one time?  You may remember from your history lessons that Roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts because of his beliefs.  He lived for a harsh winter among the Native Americans.  He nearly died that winter and credited the Native American who took him in for saving his life.  He eventually purchased land from the Native Americans and established a colony in the wilderness where he and others could be free.  It was eventually named Rhode Island. Believing the providence of God had led him there, he named the town Providence.  It was in Providence, Rhode Island, that Roger Williams planted the first Baptist church in America.  I’ve been there.  From that pulpit in the wilderness, he preached freedom:  freedom of the individual and the church from the dictates of the state.

          The list of Baptist voices crying for religious liberty is very, very long.  Obadiah Holmes, who was whipped for the crime of refusing to allow his infant to be baptized by the state church. Dr. Henry Dunster, dismissed as president of Harvard University because he became a Baptist. Isaac Baccus, put in jail because he refused to pay church tax.  John Leland of Virginia, who convinced James Madison of the importance of religious liberty.  All these Baptists endured persecution, ostracism, prison, and even death because they believed that for religious faith to be genuine it must be freely chosen. Every individual, they believed, has a God-given right and responsibility to respond to God without coercion or force.  They knew the only real faith is that which is personally and freely chosen. And that idea eventually won in the United States of America.

          Did you know that early Baptists were sometimes referred to as "Matthew 22 people”?  That is the text they used to support their claim for religious liberty. Matthew 22 records an incident involving two parties.  Jesus was one of the parties.  The other party was made up of Pharisees and Herodians.  The Pharisees and Herodians conspired together to trap Jesus.  They asked him this question, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"  Of course, this was a Catch-22 question.  If Jesus answered "yes," he would fall into disfavor with the common people, who hated paying taxes to Rome. If he answered "no," then he could be charged with treason and imprisoned.  It was the perfect question.

          Matthew notes that Jesus recognized their evil motive.  He asked for a coin.  As they all looked at that coin in Jesus' hand, he asked them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"  And of course, they all said, "the emperor’s."  Then Jesus responded to their trap question with these profound words, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God's." 

          Matthew says that they marveled at his wisdom.

          "Render unto Caesar that things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's," the older translations read. With that statement, Jesus distinguished between two realms, the realm of secular government and the realm of religion.  He acknowledged the legitimacy of both.  There is a proper place in life for the state.  It is not inherently evil, though we may sometimes wonder.  We are to pay our taxes to the government, whether we like it or not.  We are to be involved in government because government exists for the good of the people.

          But note this: God may ordain governments, but governments are not God.  So Jesus also said, "Give to God the things that are God's."  As Christians, our citizenship is in heaven, Paul said.  Our ultimate loyalty is to God.  "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," Jesus said.  Out of that allegiance to God, Peter and John resisted the government in Acts 4.  They chose prison saying, "We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard."  Like our forefathers and mothers, they chose to obey God rather than men.

          So our early Baptists believed that Jesus gave legitimacy both to government and religion, two legitimate entities that must exist each in its own realm.  The state must not meddle in the affairs of the church.  And the church must not turn to the state to carry out the church's work.  That is why Baptists have believed believe a federal judge should do nothing in his function as a judge to promote one religion.  That is why Baptists have believed state schools should not promote one religion.  The Baptist ideal is a free church in a free state.  The church must never put itself in the position of needing the state for the church's work.  That makes the church vulnerable compromise. History has proved that the wedding of church and state is unholy and their offspring corrupt.

          One of Baptists’ greatest voices for religious liberty and the separation of church and state was Dr. George W. Truett, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas long ago.  On May 16, 1920, on the East Steps of the U.S. Capital, Dr. Truett delivered what is arguably his most famous sermon.  It was titled, “Baptists and Religious Liberty.”  In that sermon he said these words:

A true Baptist could not persecute others.  If anywhere you find so-called Baptists persecuting Protestants or Catholics, Gentile or Jew, pagan, heathen, sinner, or anybody else, they are belying the agelong contention of our people.

          He told a story of a teenage boy and his father engaged in conflict.  The father calls his son in and says with a stern voice, “Son, sit down!”

          The son looks his dad in the eyes and respectfully replies, “I prefer to stand.”

          The father says again, this time more forcefully, “Son, sit down!”

          Again, the son replies, “I wish to stand.”

          So, the father reaches out, places his hands on the son’s shoulders, and forces him down into the chair.  Then the father says, “Now you’re seated!”

          The son says to his father, “I may be seated on the outside, but I am standing on the inside.”

          Some things cannot be forced.  Religion is one of them.  The human soul, the conscience, must be free.  The Baptist ideal is a free heart freely responding to the wooing love of God. That is what it means for church and state to be separate.

Closing Prayer

Wooing, searching, calling God, our free hearts are open to you.  In response to your love, we freely give our love.  Amen.