Constitutional Clauses and the Persecuted Church

Last night, another good atheist friend of mine named Stetson (not the same atheist that I spoke of a few days ago) asked about the Bible's stance on the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. Since it was such a long reply, with his permission, I copied/pasted it below (with a few edits). I have slightly deviated the focus in this blog post to what I was originally replying to - in particular, I want to note the relation of the two clauses to the current situation of the Persecuted Church in other countries.

Alright, about the Bible's take on the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause. First I will give a few Scriptures that would apply to this, and then I will give my thoughts on it.

First, one of the most important texts for dealing with the government comes from Romans 13:1-8. It is a very important passage for dealing with how Christianity should relate to the government:

Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. For government is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong. Therefore, you must submit, not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience. And for this reason you pay taxes, since the ⌊authorities⌋ are God’s public servants, continually attending to these tasks. Pay your obligations to everyone: taxes to those you owe taxes, tolls to those you owe tolls, respect to those you owe respect, and honor to those you owe honor. Romans 13:1-7 (HCSB)

This passage, while it commands Christians to submit to the authority of the government, when taken in together with what Jesus said about the government, it establishes a very important directive that we should follow.

Tell us, therefore, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But perceiving their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing Me, hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the tax.” So they brought Him a denarius. “Whose image and inscription is this?” He asked them. “Caesar’s,” they said to Him. Then He said to them, “Therefore give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away. Matthew 22:17-22 (HCSB)

Christ is saying here that when it comes to matters of the government, then we are to obey the government. However, if the government is seeking to do something that is to be done against God or if the government is asking for it's citizens to do something immoral or something wrong, then it is the duty of Christians to stand against the government. Taking a stance against the government is not the default stance. That is a much larger subject to dive into, however.

Now, to the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. Time for a little church history. Prior to the founding of America, we have the Protestant Revolution, beginning when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg. At the time, the Catholic Church was the religion of the state - and because it was the religion of the state (for the majority of the European nations at the time) it was able to use the power of the state - it's resources, governing bodies, enforcement forces, ect - to suppress what it openly deemed to be a heretical movement within the church at the time, and it openly persecuted, sometimes through violent means, to try and silence the Reformation. This was only possible because the Catholic Church was established as the official religion of the government, and therefore was able to use the government's powers to accomplish it's will. Had the Catholic Church not been established as the official religion, they would not have been able to do anything.

America was colonized for several reasons, but one of the most important one was for those that were seeking religious freedom - the pilgrims. Among other things, they were seeking to escape the religious persecution that was taking place through the government. The founders knew what they were doing when they included the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause - it was to prevent history from repeating itself and from Religion A from being able to beat up Religion B because Religion A was the official religion.

I believe those two clauses are what makes this country incredible - I believe that no religion, even Christianity, should be adopted to be a government established religion, and here is why: I am very involved with watchdog groups that inform about the persecuted church in other countries, and the persecution I speak of it only possible because of a lack of (either in the countries' constitution, or in enforcement) of these two Clauses. If there is one fact that the media continually wishes to suppress, it is the well document, very frequent, very common, (sometimes) very violent and very disturbing amount of persecution that takes place against Christians in the Middle East, China, N. Korea, and elsewhere. This is only possible because in those places, things like the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause do _not_ exist - in fact, in these countries where persecution of Christians take place, it is precisely because a specific religion is established (most of which is Islam) and because you are not free to practice anything else! America is a great nation because of those two clauses, because it allows people to believe whatever they want knowing that they will not face persecution from the government.

Questions? Comments? Leave your thoughts below!