In my sermon on the Sunday before
the Fourth of July, I referred to the government of the U.S. as secular. The
word “secular” means “unrelated to religion.”
For many, however, the word secular has a sense of “anti-religiousness”
or against religion; and a sense of “worldliness,” or sinfulness. That was not at all what I sought to relate. I
used it in its basic meaning, i.e. unrelated to religion. Because of the negative connotations for some of
the word “secular,” I will no longer refer to our government as secular. Instead I will use the phrase “neutral toward
religion.”
In 1802 President Thomas Jefferson,
in a letter to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association, sought to explain
the impact of the First Amendment to the Constitution. He wrote, “Believing with you that religion
is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account
to none other for his faith or his worship, the legitimate powers of government
reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence
that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature
should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church
&State.” The courts have followed
that understanding through the years, and, as I noted in the sermon, because of
that amendment no religious wars have been fought in this country’s
history. At the same time religious wars
have been epidemic around the world, including Christians vs. Christians in
Ireland.
The First Amendment declares that
the U.S. government shall be neutral towards religion, neither promoting it,
i.e. “establishment,” nor restricting it, i.e. “free exercise.”
In the sermon I stated that this
country is Christian in that the majority of citizens are Christians. The
Christian majority wielded great influence in shaping the country and its
laws. But the government itself is
neutral toward religion.
As Jesus said, “Render therefore to
Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
(Matthew 22:21)
Grace and peace. Mel
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