In fact, for most of our history as Americans, it has been political suicide to FAIL to claim to believe in god… and for a long time, to FAIL to claim Christ as Savior.  Being a religious person has rightly been a protected status; but I fear that at the political level, it has encouraged some very dishonest claims. Our government has been so cautious to pass any law that might restrict the free expression of faith, that religious property is not taxed, and religious personnel get a housing allowance.  This was meant to encourage and free up religious groups… but has the entanglement been worth it?

The government has taken seriously the protection of religious beliefs for 200 years.  Often, religious liberty has been, arguably, the most strongly protected in the US.   

The freedom of religious expression, when mixed with a freedom of speech, has created a very fertile garden for the transmission of Christian apologetics, biblical precepts, moral argumentation, etc.!

Despite what you may have been told, the founders of the US, even the few who weren’t clearly Christians, had a very strong respect for the Judeo-Christian worldview.  They accepted the nature of man that is in alignment with the Holy Bible, so the systems they created, the guidelines they enshrined and the rights they protected fit for the Christian majority.

As John Adams said in his speech to the Massachusetts Militia in 1789, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102

He claimed that without the bridle of morality and religion the character flaws of humanity would “break the strongest cords of our constitution as a whale through a net.”

I, for one, am deeply appreciative of so much of what these 244 years (plus or minus) have wrought.  There have been a lot of positives for Christians in America, and a lot of positive consequences, but as is often true, sometimes the consequences of those consequences are unseen and unpredicted.  The gospel has spread from the West in general, and the US in particular in ways that would have been impossible without the freedoms and wealth of the US aligned with the friendliness to the Faith.  Consider much more the charities and ministries that exist in the dozens in every community!

Over the last couple of hundred years, the government has stepped in, alongside, in lockstep with us, in regard to many of the key Christian ethics, institutions, and more – in an effort to express approval, blessing, and to offer protection.  Of course, this seemed not only innocent but encouraging!

In the past, the State partnered with the Church to offer charity, to approve adoptions, to define families, to provide welfare, and to witness marriages, just to name a few.  The government counted on the Church to lead in these issues of core values, while the role of the state was to remove barriers and encourage support of the Church in these areas.

Then, over time, the government’s witness of these Church (or Divine) institutions, began to supersede the Church’s role in them, or claim on them. 

Marriage is the one I have given the most thought to since the changes there have come suddenly enough to leave me scrambling a little theologically. This will be my emphasis through the rest of this article as an example of the danger of integrating the government into God’s business… and what we do next.