Christianity & Government

"In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed...No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people." Webster

Today's rhetoric of separation of church and state should stop at the founding father's words and those near their time. For they were Christian men of great faith whose lives depicted and whose words echoed Scriptural truths. It is no more evident than in their words recorded in our nations founding documents. The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence itself undeniably affirms this when it states that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." To the creators of the corner stones of America, Christianity in state was no contradiction. It is therefore obvious that the separation was not what most today fight for. Rather it was as Jefferson meant it to be- a separation of state from church not church from state.

When we consider the historical context of these men the true meaning of separation from church and state becomes crystal clear. Most of America's founders either came from England or were intimately acquainted with it. There the state had infiltrated the church and corrupted it. Consequently American leaders wanted to guard against the same bane and thereby protect the church's purity. For it held the same place in their hearts as it did in Webster's as is evidenced by their free and copious use of Christian language in America's founding documents. We can deduce then that they considered that religion, particularly Christianity, does a nation well, especially a nation which intends "to secure the rights and privileges of a free people" as Webster's aforementioned quote states.

In conclusion, we ought to, nay, must reintegrate Christianity into our society and government as it is an intrigal, vital, piece to our nation's success and future, indeed to its very rason d'etre. When we seperate the church from the state we seperate heart from the body.