Of crosses, guns and the separation thereof

We live in a secular society. So what exactly is a secular society? That used to mean a society where no one religion or set of religious beliefs would ever be forced upon people by their government. The culturally approved expression of this is the separation of church and state.

What this means in practice today is that people who believe in the Bible are allowed to say, well, what society wants to hear is in the Bible, and that’s about it. The modern meaning of a secular state has become one where biblical values that don’t meet with popular approval are excluded from public discourse.

When people who believe in the Bible say homosexuality is a sin, regardless of where we say it, we are labeled homophobic and derided as detrimental to a secular society. When Bible-believing people say they think abortion is the moral equivalent of murder, or anything approaching that, we are labeled as backward thinking, misogynistic Neanderthals and as detrimental to a healthy, secular society. Almost any expression of traditionally accepted biblical norms is condemned. This is especially true when pastors, preachers or priests are guilty of expressing such archaic ideas. Nothing may be allowed, we are told, that violates the precious separation of church and state, which means saying anything that anyone would find offensive.

I, by the way, am a big fan of the separation of church and state. I just wish we had it. When the state tells me I can’t say something in a sermon, that I cannot express my religious convictions in my church, what has happened to the separation of church and state? The double standard that exists is truly staggering in scope.

Nothing could make this double standard clearer than the recent performance by that unquestioned champion of the separation of church and state, California’s U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein. Just in case you have not heard, Feinstein believes we live in a country where the separation of church and state must be “absolute.” That’s her word, not mine. She said it in the confirmation hearings for Judge Roberts. It’s in the public record.

So when Feinstein rolled out her newest incarnation of an assault weapons ban, how did she do it? By parading a cleric out who could pray for the endeavor. The Rev. Canon Gary Hall, dean of the National Cathedral, informed the nation — and you fans of the separation of church and state might want to sit down here, or maybe call your lawyer, or the ACLU — that “the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby.”

So if I get this right, when a Bible-believing person says publically what they think the Bible says about a contemporary issue, cosmic chaos erupts because the sacred veil of separation between church and state has been rendered twain, but when an elected politician with a well-established record of opposing Christian values decides that a bit of good, old-fashioned religion will help advance her political agenda, that’s cool. It’s hypocrisy on the scale of, well, biblical proportions.

The pertinent question then is this: how do Bible believing people respond? I believe the following must be affirmed. First, we must recognize that the separation of church and state doesn’t exist. Yes, I like Jefferson, studied him in college, really dug Rousseau and Locke too, but what they were talking about has nothing to do with the present situation. The reality they addressed simply doesn’t exist any more, with the exception of a secular state religion that is being instituted daily. There is no area of life where our government can’t go. Abortion? Think again. The government pays for and promotes it. The definition of marriage? That’s the government’s job now. So much for separation.

Secondly, it must be recognized by those who embrace Scripture as a revelation of truth that we no longer can afford the luxury of pretense. The separation of church and state in the present experience is a pretense. I am confident that the prophets of old were routinely accused of meddling where their services did not belong. Yet the call to preach the truth demanded that they speak boldly, directly and, dare I say, politically. We must do the same.

Thirdly, we must recognize that while we have no control over the action of secularists such as Feinstein, we do have control over what we do and say. My commitment to my church, my community, my family and myself is to say what must be said. I doubt there will be much separation in it.

John Moropoulos and his wife, Joyce, are co-pastors of Gateway Fellowship. They meet at Sophia’s Café and may be reached at jjnm@mtaonline.net.

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