Separation of Church and State, Jesus Style, Part 2

Today we look at a relevant news article and pick apart all the reasons why Christian nationalism is antichrist and unscriptural and stupid.

So, this week this happened:

He’s talking about the US Constitution here, not scripture, because scripture and Jesus’ actions and words are abundantly clear when it comes to mixing that which is holy with the things of this world. And the best example of that was when Jesus said that we should “give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto G-d that which is G-d’s” in part one. If we are talking about what Jesus said and advised us to do, then separation of the church from the affairs of the government is what we believe to be the Christ-like approach to government. Our spiritual beliefs are a private matter, a holiness matter, a matter for the followers of the Christ. The government is a separate and worldly entity.

In the time of Jesus there were Jewish law for Jews and the Romans counted Caesar among their gods. Jews were not required to worship Caesar as a god, but they had to pay taxes to him and they were also ruled by Caesar. Jesus did not call for his followers to supplant Roman rule or practice their religions, but he did advocate for a kind of religious freedom as a Jewish mystic who wasn’t on board with religious authoritarianism.

So let’s get back to this article. Mike is saying that the Constitution was written in such a way to stop government from interfering in “religion” only. Well, I’m not a Constitutional lawyer, but I am pretty sure that the intent of the Constitution means BOTH.

The government can’t involve itself in any religion, to establish itself to govern a religion, and religion cannot be the basis of government policies. Government can interfere in illegal activities, such as church child abuse (although as we know, it’s very difficult to even get government involved at that level), but that’s it. So Mike’s point is moot in the sense that he’s just repeating what the government already does, which is, the government doesn’t involve itself in religion.

But what Mike wants is for government TO involve itself in religion and for government policies to be based on religion. And this establishment of a government religion, will of course be his particular flavor of evangelical Christianity. See how that works?

And you can bet your hot cheeks that Mike would not want my flavor of gnostic Christianity practiced in the government of his “Christian Nation.” No Mike wouldn’t want a the sacrament of knowledge (magic mushrooms) mandatory for him and all of the other congress critters before they are allowed to govern their fellow man. (In reality I would not want my holy practices any where near government or mired in worldly things, this is just for the sake of my argument.)

Mike wants non-tax paying entities to tell us all how to think and what to do. Are churches going to start paying taxes once Mike allows them to rule over us? Nope. Just look at all of the states that are enacting all sort of religious-(specifically fundagelical Christian) based laws these days—do any churches in those states pay taxes? Nope.

And why not? Why are these churches not paying taxes? Are they not being disobedient to the direct words of Jesus when he said to pay the taxes to Caesar? He did not say that religious people and temples were exempt from taxes, he said that the taxes had to be paid, period. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s! So what if the governments exempts them from taxes? Jesus did not exempt them from taxes. Why aren’t they voluntarily handing over the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar?

Jesus chased the merchants and moneychangers out of the temple and told the people there not to make the house of the Father into a den of thieves.

Mark 11:15-17

And Yeshua entered The Temple of God and he began to cast out those who bought and sold in The Temple and he overturned the tables of the money exchangers and the seats of those who were selling doves.

And he allowed no one to carry merchandise inside The Temple.

And he taught and he said to them, “Is it not written: 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?' But you have made it a den of robbers.”

And after he cleansed the holy place of material goods (which is really what is meant when he talks about “the world” or “worldliness”) he prevented anyone entering from bringing in worldly goods as well.

Outside of the holy place when we use Caesar’s coins, we pay our taxes to Caesar. But inside the holy place there is no place for coins or merchandise whatsoever. And Jesus never told anyone to go set up a holy temple inside of Caesar’s palace either!

Jesus taught strict separation of the things that are holy from the things of the world, strict separation of religion and state.

And I want to stress that this message isn’t just for the evangelical or the orthodox, I’m looking at you too, “progressive” Christians. Political activism and influence in the name of religion is the same whether it’s conservative or progressive—it is anti-Christ and it is a practice of antichrists.