Where Does “Separation of Church and State” Come From and What Does It Really Mean?

A good brief summary from Princeton’s Robert P. George:

The best resource I know on this question is Daniel Dreisbach’s Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State (New York University Press, 2003).

For a good summary of this history and analysis, see his online piece, “The Mythical ‘Wall of Separation’: How a Misused Metaphor Changed Church-State Law, Policy, and Discourse.”

Professor Dresibach begins by observing:

No metaphor in American letters has had a more profound influence on law and policy than Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation between church and state.” Today, this figure of speech is accepted by many Americans as a pithy description of the constitutionally prescribed church-state arrangement, and it has become the sacred icon of a strict separationist dogma that champions a secular polity in which religious influences are systematically and coercively stripped from public life.

In our own time, the judiciary has embraced this figurative phrase as a virtual rule of constitutional law and as the organizing theme of church-state jurisprudence, even though the metaphor is nowhere to be found in the U.S. Constitution.

Dresibach sets out “to challenge the conventional, secular myth that Thomas Jefferson, or the constitutional architects, erected a high wall between religion and the civil government.”

“Although today,” he writes, “Jefferson’s Danbury letter is thought of as a principled statement on the prudential and constitutional relationship between church and state, it was in fact a political statement written to reassure pious Baptist constituents that Jefferson was indeed a friend of religion and to strike back at the Federalist-Congregationalist establishment in Connecticut for shamelessly vilifying him as an infidel and atheist in the recent campaign.”

It’s not uncommon for advocates of the “high and impregnable wall” misunderstanding of the metaphor to suggest that Jefferson’s own policies were incompatible with his own principles (e.g., endorsement of federal funds to build churches, support of Christian missionaries among the Native Americans, etc.). But Dresibach shows that in Jefferson’s own thinking, the wall was not a separation between church and all civil government, but rather a wall between the national and state governments on matters related to religion.

Where Does True Love Come From?

How is love generated in our lives? The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1:5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

From the heart “flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). “Out of the abundance of the heart [the] mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). The heart is the factory of our soul that generates all desire, thought, emotion, and action. Our heart determines our identity, and that is why in order to become a believer we need a new heart and new spiritual influences upon it (Ezekiel 36:26–27).

Paul gets specific in this text. He says that love will flow out of a pure heart –– that is, a heart that has been cleansed; one that has no defilement. Wholehearted, life-encompassing love for God expressed in radical love for neighbor is only possible where sin is forgiven and offense is pardoned. God-honoring lovers are those who cherish Jesus –– who recognize their sin and cling to the cross, the only place where God’s wrath against sin is satisfied. May we say with Paul in 1 Timothy 1:15, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” The pure heart is not haughty because it recognizes the depth of its own depravity apart from Christ. The pure heart empowers one to love even those who are most difficult to love because it has experienced the sin-overcoming love of God itself. In fact, if we are in Christ, our failure to love others is a sure sign that our heart is not relishing enough the wonder of our salvation. Love flows from a cleansed, purified heart.

Love is also fueled by a “good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:5). In the Bible, the conscience urges right and hinders wrong; it passes judgment on a decision or action; and it produces guilt or commendation in the heart (Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, 24). For Paul, a conscience can be “good” (1 Timothy 1:5, 19) or “clear” (1 Timothy 3:9; 2 Timothy 1:3), but it can also become “seared” or “defiled” when someone turns from the faith and rejects Christ (1 Timothy 4:1–2; Titus 1:14–15).

Love is birthed in a heart that is free from guilt and that enjoys pure motivations. Paul recognized fully his own sinfulness, but he ministered with a good conscience because he had met the wrath-overcoming, mercy-displaying, joy-bringing Christ. As he says in 1 Timothy 1:14, “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Jesus alone can clear the conscience of a sinner and enable right motivation, and therefore Jesus is the ultimate source for the life of love.

The last means Paul supplies for seeing love birthed in one’s life is a “sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). By “sincere,” the apostle appears to address the type of faith –– it was authentic, genuine, the real deal (see 2 Timothy 1:5). The opposite or antonym of this kind of sincerity or genuineness is “insincerity” like that mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:2. Beginning in 4:1, Paul says, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.” Paul is looking for an un-hypocritical faith, in contrast to a hypocritical faith.

Faith for Paul is about dependence on Jesus. It’s about radical affirmation of our neediness and Christ’s sufficiency. It is the only means by which we receive help and hope, salvation and satisfaction from God. Faith in Christ is the decisive human response to God’s saving, transforming work in our souls. And faith always works through love (Galatians 5:6; cf. 1 Timothy 1:14; 2:15; 4:12; 6:11; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2:22; 3:10; Titus 2:2). We can only serve as a channel of grace to others when we ourselves have been filled with it. Love is the fruit of faith.

The aim of all gospel proclamation is to see love birthed in the hearts of hearers, for love magnifies the greatness of God. We love God because he first loved us. And we display our love for God through radical love of others. Our love for God is to be total and all-inclusive –– a wholehearted, life-encompassing, community-impacting, exclusive commitment to our God. And this kind of love will naturally overflow in love for neighbor. Living in the joy of the blood-bought gospel sparks radical love.

Where the Light Is Strong

A classic vaudeville routine begins with a pitch-black theater except for a large circle of light coming from a street lamp. In the spotlight, a man is on his knees, crawling with his hands in front of him, carefully probing the lighted circle. After a few moments a policeman walks on stage. Seeing the man on all fours, he poses the obvious question: “Did you lose some­thing?”

“Yes,” the man replies. “I have lost my keys.”

Kindly, the police officer joins the man’s search, and two figures now circle the lighted area on hands and knees.  After some time, the officer stops. “Are you absolutely certain this is where you lost your keys?  We’ve covered every inch.”

“Why no,” the man replies matter-of-factly, pointing to a darkened corner. “I lost them over there.”

Visibly shaken, the policeman exclaims, “Well, then why in the name of all heaven are we looking for them over here?”

The man responds with equal annoyance: “Isn’t that obvious?  The light is better over here!”

The classic comedy enacts a subtle point. It is far easier to limit our examining of life’s missing keys to easy, comfortable places. Like a modern parable, the story registers an illogic common to most. Searching dark and difficult corners—where the keys may have in fact been lost—is far less desirable.

Somewhere between reading belittling headlines of a once-popular celebrity and hearing an open invitation to weigh-in on the latest political scandal, I wondered if the drama didn’t register something more. It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the signs that we live, particularly in the west, in a world of criticism. We are encouraged by all facets of the media to examine the flaws of everyone, to search for the scandal in every story, and to pour over everything that divides us, offends us, or otherwise differs from us in any way.

But more than this, we are encouraged to opine and criticize regardless of whether we know anything about the subject or person whatsoever. Online news articles quite typically now have a section for comments where readers are invited to put their own remarks in writing. And comment they do. The long list of critics offers thoughts on anything from the topic, to the author, to things completely unrelated. Carrying this one step further, one online bookseller not only invites anyone to be an official book reviewer; they also invite anyone to comment on these comments, to vote on whether or not the reviewers themselves need to be critiqued. While I appreciate some of these services, the attitude they endorse seems so pervasive. Everyone is now a critic and an expert at once.

And this is where the man in the drama seems unquestionably familiar. How easy is it to search where the light is strong, to examine the faults and scandals of others as if it were the best place to logically spend our time? As the light of the media shines on an individual or the light of gossip draws our attention like searchlights to a grand opening, how easy is it to declare this particular spot the place we will fully scrutinize? How readily do we prefer to be critics of those in the spotlight rather than fumble over our own flaws in the dark?

In the Christian journey in the shadow of the God-Man, where some follow the darkened path of self-examination, it is helpful to know that Jesus was aware just how tempting is the option of the easier route. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own?… You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-4). The flaws we see in pop-stars, politicians, and co-workers may seem so startlingly clear to us. The critiques and opinions we can so readily offer about books and public scandal, internal gossip and things about which we actually know little all may seem innocent enough. But might there not be a better place to spend our energy searching? Maybe we are looking where the light is strong, but not where keys are really lost.

An old proverb explains, “The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.” Perhaps this is true because the mocker spends his time searching the comfortable places of life, the easy targets where light and company will always be found. The difficult, dimly lighted places require much more of us, and often we are left to search on our own. But the discerning know that wisdom comes with the kind of seeking that pulls us mysteriously inward, into places where there is actually something to find, and before a merciful throne that compels transparency. Here, everyone who seeks finds, the lost themselves are discovered, and once dark corners of the soul are changed by the light of Christ.

Where Same-Sex Attraction Originates; and Where It Ends

Same-sex desires and same-sex orientation are part of our broken and disordered sexuality owing to the God’s subjection of the created order to futility because of man’s sin.

In Genesis 2 we read about the catastrophic moment when the first man and woman rebelled against God. The effects on them and on the world are described in chapters 2 and 3, and then illustrated in the sin-soaked and death-ridden history of the Old Testament, indeed all of history.

The apostle Paul gives the key interpretation of what happened there and its effect on us. Here's his key word from Romans 8:20–21: “The creation was subjected to futility [this is God's response to human rebellion], not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope [so this is God who did this. The devil didn't subject it to hope. God cursed creation. We read that in Genesis 3] 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

And then, maybe one of the most important verses in the Bible for my understanding of almost everything I deal with in the brokenness of my life, my marriage, my children, this church, this world. Romans 8:23, goes like this. . . , and the point is that Paul is looking at the Romans in the face, as it were, who are about to say back to him, "Oh yes, the curse fell on the world and the whole creation was subjected, but we have been redeemed!" And here's his response to that:

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

And I am arguing that same-sex desires and same-sex orientation are in that category of groaning — waiting for the redemption of our bodies. Which means they are in the same broad category with all kinds of disordered bodies and minds and emotions.

If we tried to make a list of the emotional and mental and physical brokenness of the human family the list would be unending. And all of us are broken and disordered in different ways. All of you, without exception, are bent towards desiring what you ought not to desire. I could document mine. Desires. We have not gotten to behavior yet. We are all disordered in our emotions, or minds, our bodies. We groan. We groan! And the damage we do waiting. Waiting for our final, full, complete adoption — the redemption of our whole bodies, brains, emotion, will.

This is a call for careful distinctions lest you hurt people — or yourself — unnecessarily. All our disorders — all our brokenness — is rooted in sin, original sin and our sinful nature. All of it. But, to be caused by a sinful nature, and rooted in sin, doesn't make a disorder equal to sinning.

Let me say it a little differently, because our language here just has to be so careful. It is not wrong, but I think proper to say, all of our disordered desires that are going after things we shouldn't go after are sinful desires — sinful meaning they are rooted in sin, and they are contaminated and disorderd, they're bent.

Daddy, Where Do Jobs Comes From?

Jobs are in the news. The lack of them actually. Unemployment is high and underemployment is higher. So tonight President Obama will address Congress and the nation and unveil a new jobs agenda. The Republicans will follow up with their plan next week.

I’m not interesting in commenting on the specifics of either party’s job plan. There are, no doubt, many good ideas that could help the economy and many bad ideas to avoid. I’ll let you decide which are which.

But I thought it might be worthwhile to think about where private sector jobs come from. Most basically, new jobs come from people with money to spend who want to spend their money on more people. This means:

(1) The employer must have money. He may spend his own money. Or he may borrow money from investors or the bank. But somehow he has to have money.

(2)The employer must believe that spending his money on new employees will be good for his business. We may wish that employers hired people just cuz. But that’s not the way the world works. When employers want to be charitable they give to church or to their alma mater. But with their business they know they need to make money. Consequently, they hire new workers only when they believe that paying more people will eventually be offset by making more money.

(3) The employer must be willing to take a risk. Very few new hires are sure things. Employers don’t know exactly what they are getting with their new employees. More important, they don’t know what will happen with their profits. They follow trends and track receipts and keep money in reserve, but in the end every expansion of business is a risk.

(4) The employer must be somewhat confident in his projection of the future. Yes, risk is inevitable. But shrewd businesses look to minimize risk. They want to know what their taxes will be, whether existing laws will be fairly enforced, what regulations will be like, what’s happening with their competitors, what’s happening with the prices of things they need to buy, what’s happening with markets overseas. There are a thousand things they’d like to know. They can’t know them all. But the more predictable their future looks, the more apt they will be to take risks.

Underneath it All

Of course, none of this matters if the employer is not profitable. Almost no business will expand unless profits are increasing, or it is believed strongly that they will.

So where do profits come from?

People make a profit when they sell goods or services for more than it costs to produce or perform those goods and services. No doubt, many people are greedy and pursue profits at the expense of principle and the good of people. But profits by themselves are not bad. In fact, they tell you that you are delivering a product that people find valuable. Profits help allocate scarce resources toward the goods and services that people want.

When the same goods and services can be delivered more cheaply, profits increase. And with fair competition prices will eventually decrease, which is good for consumers. Productivity is the name of the game. Whenever the same stuff can be produced for less cost, productivity has increased. And when productivity increases, an economy expands. This doesn’t mean everyone will profit equally. One business windfall may spell bad news for some other industry. But over time, with increased productivity, the net effect on the whole economy is positive. And that means more jobs.

Let me illustrate.

Mr. Moo and His Milkmaids

Mr. Moo sells milk. He charges $5 a gallon. Everyone in town wants milk so everyone pays Mr. Moo $5 a gallon. But Mr. Moo wants to make even more money. Maybe he’s greedy. Maybe he wants to give more to his church. Maybe he wants to buy a new car. Maybe he just had a new baby that needs food and clothes. Maybe he wants to bet on horses. No matter the reason, Mr. Moo (like almost everyone) wants to make more money. What should he do?

He could charge more for his milk, but he realizes that at $6 a gallon some of his customers will drive to the next town where milk is only $4.75. So instead he tries to lower his costs. He needs $4 to make a gallon of milk, but he’d like to do better. So next month he replaces his milkmaids with new milking machines. This requires a substantial up front investment, but within a year the milking machines have paid for themselves. Without having to pay milkmaids, his milk only costs $3 to produce. Now he charges $4.25—a savings to his customers and more profit for him.

This simple example shows how productivity fuels profits. Mr. Moo found a way to make the same thing for less money.

But, you ask, how is this good for anyone but Mr. Moo? Well, as the other farmers purchased their milking machines their costs went down too. So they started to lower prices, hoping to attract more customers. Mr. Moo did the same. Even if he is now getting richer, his customers are too. They save 75 cents on every gallon of milk (paying $4.25 when they used to pay $5.00). Now they have the same milk as before but more money. The economy has expanded.

And that’s not all, with more money in his pocket Mr. Moo goes out to eat more, which helps the local burger joint hire one more cook. And all the new machines need servicing, so the local repairmen hires an apprentice. The grocer spends less on milk so he can add another bagger. The doctor, who is saving money on dairy, has more money to spend so he donates to the local art museum which can afford to purchase two new paintings from an aspiring artist. No one knew Mr. Moo’s machines would help so many people and create so many jobs. No one really notices either, but it happens.

But what about the poor milkmaids? True, they are out of work. Their lives, at least in the short run, are worse because of the new innovation. Those dreaded milking machines seemed to have ruined everything. In fact, the mayor almost outlawed them. Others wanted to institute a new milking machine tariff to discourage farmers from buying them and to help save milkmaid jobs. But none of this happened. Instead farmers kept buying milking machines and milkmaids kept losing their jobs. Which was really hard on the milkmaids and their families.

And yet, that’s not the end of the story. Some of the milkmaids went to work for Mr. Pump who manufactures milking machines. His business was booming. He needed more workers to help make more machines. So he hired a few milkmaids. And remember, as the price of milk dropped, so did the price of cheese and pizza and yogurt. Everyone’s grocery bill was less. The whole town had the same stuff but more money. So Mr. Wall and Mr Mart decided to open a new thrift store. Mrs. Lovejoy, who started watching busy Mr. Wall’s and Mr. Mart’s kids during the day, decided to open a daycare. She hired some former milkmaids to help, as did Mr. Wall and Mr. Mart. A few of the married milkmaids decided they didn’t have to work anymore because groceries were cheaper than they used to be and the family could get by on less. It was hard and humiliating to lose their jobs, but five years later the whole town is better off because Mr. Moo bought his milking machines. There are more jobs. Families are able to purchase more things. And there is more ice cream for everyone.

Coming to a Point

The point of this little parable is to highlight the power of productivity. Obviously, my story is hugely simplified. This one example doesn’t take into account that some technologies are morally suspect and some people use them immorally. Virtue is necessary for any flourishing economy. Economists call it social capital. It’s the fancy phrase for trust, honesty, and the rule of law. Economies drag when corruption soars. Every economy needs rules that are justly enforced by impartial rule keepers. All of this is assumed in the story of our capitalist friend Mr Moo.

I don’t believe the Bible mandates a specific economic system. Capitalism is not required by Christianity. But Christian principles do undergird capitalism. And the biggest of these is capital itself. When we hear “capital” we think of money. But that’s not the only, or the most important, kind of capital. Remember, capital comes from the Latin word for “head.” The most important element in capitalism is the human brain. The engine of capitalism is the God-given drive, ability, and responsibility to create, to innovate, to conquer and subdue. When humans make something out of nothing, or when we make the same something more efficiently, we show for the image of God in us. We turn a black gooey mess into gasoline and sand into silicon chips. That’s the result of human ingenuity, which results in increased productivity. And it just so happens, that increased productivity leads to profit, and profits are ultimately where jobs come from.