08-29-2018, 05:51 AM
I am having a bit of trouble separating church and state. Let me draw a few lines. Are there those who disagree?
We have Ten Commandments…
1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Respect your father and mother.
6. You must not commit murder.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbor.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbor’s goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Now, 1, 2 3, and 4 seem pure religious. Government seems to have no business enforcing them.
Wait? 4? Can we have blue laws? Weekends? Yes, we are allowed to, and they can correspond to various maybe religious traditions, but governments have no business leaning the blue laws to enforce a particular set of religious traditions. For practical reasons, the blue laws should be compatible with the majority, though.
Then we have 6, 7, 8 and 9, which describe civil crimes. Both churches and governments deal with crimes, one to preach against them, and the other to enforce and punish. I have no problem with the government enforcing and punishing crimes as long as the crimes are not religious ones, such as eating meat on a Friday.
Then we have 5 and 10, honoring parents and not envying your neighbors stuff. Honor and envy are emotions. I do not see the government enforcing that a citizen feel a certain way. At the same time, 5 and 10 seem like good ideas. I can quite seen the desire of a church to preach things like that. This seems to be a church issue, with each sect free to decide what to preach so long as there is no advocacy of committing a crime.
Does this result in any controversy?
We have Ten Commandments…
1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. Respect your father and mother.
6. You must not commit murder.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbor.
10. You must not be envious of your neighbor’s goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Now, 1, 2 3, and 4 seem pure religious. Government seems to have no business enforcing them.
Wait? 4? Can we have blue laws? Weekends? Yes, we are allowed to, and they can correspond to various maybe religious traditions, but governments have no business leaning the blue laws to enforce a particular set of religious traditions. For practical reasons, the blue laws should be compatible with the majority, though.
Then we have 6, 7, 8 and 9, which describe civil crimes. Both churches and governments deal with crimes, one to preach against them, and the other to enforce and punish. I have no problem with the government enforcing and punishing crimes as long as the crimes are not religious ones, such as eating meat on a Friday.
Then we have 5 and 10, honoring parents and not envying your neighbors stuff. Honor and envy are emotions. I do not see the government enforcing that a citizen feel a certain way. At the same time, 5 and 10 seem like good ideas. I can quite seen the desire of a church to preach things like that. This seems to be a church issue, with each sect free to decide what to preach so long as there is no advocacy of committing a crime.
Does this result in any controversy?
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.