“The UMC and the Issues 2012: Church and State”

This is my last article in my “UMC and the Issues” series and this month we will be finishing up with the issue of the relationship between the church and the state.

In the U.S. we have a strong commitment to keeping the church and the government separate.  This was born out of what our founders saw in Europe where the church exercised power through the government and vice-versa and where religious wars were fought between the European powers.

The first amendment of the United States Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  This means that the government cannot establish, favor, or support any religion as an official religion and that the government cannot interfere with any individual in the practice of their own religion.

The Social Principles of the United Methodist Church state, “The United Methodist Church has for many years supported the separation of church and state. In some parts of the world this separation has guaranteed the diversity of religious expressions and the freedom to worship God according to each person's conscience. Separation of church and state means no organic union of the two, but it does permit interaction. The state should not use its authority to promote particular religious beliefs (including atheism), nor should it require prayer or worship in the public schools, but it should leave students free to practice their own religious convictions. We believe that the state should not attempt to control the church, nor should the church seek to dominate the state. The rightful and vital separation of church and state, which has served the cause of religious liberty, should not be misconstrued as the abolition of all religious expression from public life.”  (Discipline paragraph 164C)

The places where this issue comes up the most in our time are in public prayer, especially in schools, and in public religious displays like a Nativity scene or the Ten Commandments.  These are the places among others where “establishment” and “free exercise” come head to head.  For instance, students praying by themselves, or as a group, is free exercise; a teacher praying while a class is forced to listen, or to recite, is establishment.  A Nativity scene or a Ten Commandments monument on a courthouse lawn, as long as it is paid for with private money, in my opinion, would be free exercise, not establishment.  However, not everyone would agree with me.

What distresses me about this issue is that so often “Christians” can become difficult and disrespectful about it.  While we do need to exercise our rights and we do need to speak out and share our faith, we need to remember that our mission is to share the Good News and we can never do that by being disrespectful.