This is the other half of the blog I posted last night. This is my actual view of how separation of church and state should be handled by the church and what we should actually be fighting for. Maybe we should fight for the opportunity to love the lost?
So here I am not finding a fit with either strict integration or strict separation, searching for the appropriate response to Separation of Church and State as a Christian American. I cannot agree with enforcing religion or specific morals upon those who do not believe in Christ and I cannot agree with just shutting up, removing Christian morals completely letting people live in corrupted chaos. Yet I find myself bothered by saying I am going to be in the middle ground. I find myself grasping onto the idea of a response that fights for equality but am I fighting for nation that is luke-warm? My question for “equality” goes like this: Does equality promote luke-warm faith or does it promote meeting people where they are? As I have wrestled with this I really see it as a way to meet people where they are. Equality in my opinion allows 3 things: it puts away superior views of humanity, ends the fights for funding, and stops the degradation of secular people by Christians which promotes hatred of secular people aka hating the sinner and not the sin. Equality gives the freedom of practicing Christianity in a safe environment while practicing Christian love to those who need it most, the secular lost American. Equality gives the freedom to love and reach all not to the freedom to make all people Christian. It allows the Christian American to live in Christ Culture first while still having a voice in American/secular culture.
Separation of Church and State is no longer viewed as a protector of the Church so that the State cannot get involved in religious commitments and participation. It is now seen as the protector of the State from being financially involved in religious programs and education. By instating equality the State would be bound to equally give to non-profit and governmental agencies that are either Christ centered, use Christian therapies, or that proclaim the Gospel. It would also allow other religious non-profits and agencies to be financially helped, promoting the health and wellness of life.
Educationally by instating equality we would be able to put the God back in the schools. If secular science and evolution is to be taught than so is Christian creation. Instead of imposing secular beliefs on students the curriculum could cover different beliefs on matters. It seems more appropriate to expose children and students to different belief systems while they are able to still live under their parents care rather than exposing them after they have been thrown out into the world. Whether the parents are secular or religious I would imagine them wanting to help their child through their beliefs system rather than let them decide on their own as they embark on adulthood.
As far as the arena of politics I believe equality will allow the Christian to be involved without making it such a fight. Christianity needs to have a voice in the development of American principles and policies. It would be wrong to sit by apathetically allowing secular voices to be the only voice. However, it is also wrong to be so concerned with the policy that hatred of the opposition is seen over concern for the opposition. Equality allows for Christian agencies and non-profits to work at a greater capacity through additional governmental funding but it also allows those programs to be the tangibly loving side of a political opinion. The more people the church can reach in the fashion that Jesus did the less we will have to act like the Pharisees who were concerned with law over relationship. Equality promotes relationship over law, concern over extremes, and love over fights. To me this seems very fitting with Christ Culture.
I really wish we could live in a perfect land where all mankind followed the same moral code and no wrong was done, but that is a thing of the future and eternity not the present. For the present we must recognize where people are, where we have been and love them through it all. We must stay present in the lives of the lost and not all together reject them. Strict integration rejects the lost soul while strict separation provides removes a voice of hope. We must find the middle ground and create change through equal relationships with all. If living in the culture of Christ means loving the lost then let us not forsake or disregard those lives but have a voice that shows love, compassion, mercy and the hope of eternal peace.
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