Separation of Church and State

"Separation of Church and State" is a phrase that is anathema to many Christians in America today, often with good reason.  With the innate religiosity of humanity, complete separation is utterly impossible.  The religious view of politicians will always dictate their decisions, whether they are atheistic humanist, evangelical Christians, or fundamentalist Muslims.  With that in mind, it is also reasonable that people hope to have politicians in power who most closely share their own religious views.  I think sometimes there is the view among American Christians that "If only we could get a good Christian president and a good Christian congress, everything would be okay.  If only the country was run by Christians, we wouldn't be in such a mess."  Of course, non-Christians react strongly against this "ideal" situation, claiming "Separation of Church and State!"  Ignoring the misconceptions and problematic logic of both sides for the moment, I'd like to offer a different view point, gained from living in a state where there is no separation of "church" and state and where the majority of inhabitants of the land are not members of the state religion.

Israel is Jewish state, with all that implies.  Demographically, roughly 74% are considered Jewish.  So far, that doesn't seem like much of a problem.  Sure, there are the Christian and Muslim populations which will be bound to have their problems with the government, but my comments on the system lie elsewhere. 

There are roughly four main branches in Judaism today: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Ultra-Orthodox, listed in order of what we would call least "conservative" to most "conservative."  Between these four there is a broad spectrum of Torah interpretation, and the results of these different interpretations are clearly showcased in the political arena.  

The Chief Rabbinate in Israel, the religious governing authority, is Orthodox.  They specifically have authority over marriage, divorce, and conversion.  This causes problems.  

Imagine for a minute that America did not have a policy forbidding the government to control the church and forbidding the church to control the government.  Instead, let's say that some specific Christian denomination was in control of the government, or some aspects of government.  Just for the sake of illustration let's say its a Baptist denomination. 

So, now, in America, the Baptists are in control of marriage.  Say you are Methodist.  You want to get married.  You go to get a marriage license, only to find that you are required to complete a 6 week premarital counseling class with a  Baptist minister.  Once that is complete, the ceremony has to be done inside a Baptist church, on a Saturday.  You begin to be a bit upset.  

Or perhaps you are agnostic and wanting a divorce.  You apply, only to find out that you must first supply proof that your husband has been unfaithful to you, since that is what is required for a Biblical divorce.  Not only that, but then you also must complete 6 weeks of counseling with a Baptist minister, hoping you'll change your mind.  Then you find out that technically, only the husband can divorce the wife (because in the Bible the man gave the certificate of divorce).  If he refuses to divorce you, you're out of luck.

Maybe you're Catholic and you just adopted a child from China.  You want to get citizenship for them, but then you find out that in order to become an American citizen, they have to convert to the religion of the state: Christianity.  So you go through the process of having them confirmed in the Catholic Church.  You return to apply for citizenship to find out that Catholic conversion doesn't count.  They have to be converted to Baptist.  In addition, if you want to adopt another child and also get citizenship for them, there had better be proof that you're raising your first child as a Baptist, or else your second child will not be allowed to convert to gain citizenship.  

Sounds a bit frustrating, yes?  These are examples of the sorts of things that are faced by the many Jews here who are not Orthodox.  Examples could be multiplied, but I think I have made my point.

The government is probably not the right place to try to enforce religious morality, especially for Christianity.  Brothers and sisters, if we are to impact the world, change must happen one heart at a time.  Using legislation to make people behave as you want them to behave simply doesn't work, as illustrated by the Israeli government.  Frustration and rebellion are the result among those who disagree with your stance, not increased morality.  

I do not write this to say that we should not try to make good laws or elect good officials.  I do write this to say that

1. We should not pin our hopes on the government and

2. Maybe we should be thankful for "separation of church and state" because we might find that whatever religion ended up in control might not be as friendly as we would hope.