A faded line between church and state

I am a life-long Baptist who is very proud of his Baptist heritage.

While Baptists have some roots in the English separatist movement and in the older Anabaptist traditions of Central Europe, we are an American phenomenon. In early American history, Baptists carried the torch for religious freedom. More than any other religious group, Baptists are responsible for the American tradition of legal separation of church and state.

My denomination, American Baptist Churches USA, is one of the principal supporters of Baptist Joint Committee, the most powerful lobby organization in Washington, D.C., for the sole purpose of maintaining the separation of church and state. BJC regularly files briefs and argues cases before the U.S. Supreme Court that involve separation issues.

Two weeks ago when presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his “Faith in America” speech, informed Baptists took special note. Within an hour after the Romney speech, attorney Brent Walker, executive director of BJC, issued comments about the speech from both a legal perspective and a Baptist point of view.

Over the past few days, Walker and other staff from BJC have been popular participants in the public discussions about church-state relationships. I am indebted to Walker and BJC for material for this column. I am not writing in support or opposition to Romney’s candidacy for president. This is simply an opportunity to share my best understanding of separation of church and state.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution addresses the separation issue: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or respecting the free exercise thereof.”

From the beginning the Baptist concern was to keep government out of religion. The Baptist desire was for the United States to be a truly secular nation in which everyone is free to practice their religion of choice. Religion in America is to be entirely free from any interference, especially from government. An obvious correlation is that people can choose to be free of any and all religions.

Over the years Baptist Joint Committee has advocated legal protection for believers, agnostics and atheists. It has have argued for the legal protection of Native American faith practices (including the smoking of marijuana), of Scientologists, of Latter-day Saints and of a whole host of religions not mainstream.

To sum up the historic Baptist conviction, for a Baptist to be free from government interference, everyone must enjoy that same freedom.

In Romney’s speech, he made one glaring error. He said, “Freedom requires religion.” Whether this is his true conviction or an unintentional slip, the statement is an insult to every American who chooses not to be religious.

There is another side to the Baptist understanding. Keeping government out of religion does not mean religion should be banned from the public debate. Baptists historically have argued that everyone should have a place in the public square and that it is perfectly proper for religious people to bring along their beliefs and convictions.

Recently the editor of Christianity Today, David Neff, and four other high profile Evangelical leaders spent time with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice freely identifies herself as an Evangelical Christian. I have no idea whether Secretary Rice has given the same access to Roman Catholics, to Latter-day Saints or to mainline Protestant religious leaders. At this particular meeting only Evangelical leaders were present.

Is this an infringement on church-state separation? Not at all. Evangelical leaders have the same right of full participation in the public square as does the National Rifle Association and the American Federation of Labor.

I commend Neff for pulling off such a meeting. He and his cohorts were entirely within their rights to be there.

Churches have a political restriction. Churches cannot be involved in partisan politics or support particular candidates for public office. This restriction has nothing to do with First Amendment issues. Churches are nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations. That exemption and the rules of nonpolitical activity come from the IRS, not the First Amendment. Their tax exemption is no different than that of the Mat-Su Miners, the Palmer Arts Council or the Palmer Skateboard Association.

The real tragedy in the present political campaign is that Americans have so little understanding of separation we tolerate asking candidates religious questions when they run for office in this clearly secular nation. The best answer to religious questions asked of a political candidate is, “none of your business.”

The Rev. Howard Bess is pastor of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.