7th Sunday after Pentecost
Communion
Luke 20: 20-26; I Peter 2: 11-17
“Drawing the Line Between Church and State”
Rev. Tom Willadsen
“Drawing the Line Between Church and State,” The Reverend Doctor Thomas C. Willadsen, Spanish Springs Presbyterian Church, Sparks, Nevada, July 7, 2024, Luke 20:20-26, I Peter 2:11-17
Every Wednesday morning, I have a Zoom meeting with a group of pastors who put out a weekly publication for preachers called The Immediate Word. We discuss the texts on the lectionary scheduled for 11 days in the future. That is, the Sunday following the coming Sunday. We are a faithful, diverse and playful group and my weekly Zoom meeting with the other writers is one of the highlights of my week. The publisher’s website says, “The Immediate Word gives a theological perspective on today’s headlines and popular culture.“ Church goers need and expect that worship will address their everyday lives, not be lectures about ancient texts.
During a recent conversation, one of the writers observed, “The less I know about a problem, the clearer I see the solution.” It was a moment when humor revealed a great truth. If you ask an expert about anything she will tell you that there is nuance, gray areas, lack of consensus…. Whether we’re talking about foreign policy, climate change, immigration, the lack of affordable housing….whatever the topic, the more closely one looks, the more complicated it is. H.L. Mencken said, “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”
The line between church and state in the United States, my topic today, is one that is enormously complex, and while I have a clear, strongly held opinion, when I’m honest I have to admit that those who disagree with me also hold their convictions as strongly as I do. And it’s all right to disagree. At one level we should expect to disagree on matters of vital importance. A passage from the Book of Order reads, we consider the rights of private judgment, in all matters that respect religion, as universal and unalienable. (F-3.0101a)
Oh, and the question of what one’s faith and one’s nation requires is one that was asked even in Jesus’ day. Today’s gospel lesson is a tale of when the chief priests and scribes tried to trap Jesus. They sent spies who asked Jesus publicly whether observant Jews should pay taxes to the Roman occupiers. In effect they were asking him to take a stand on whom they owed their allegiance to. It appeared to be a dilemma—they imagined Jesus would either side with paying taxes, thus obeying civil law, or putting his loyalty first to God, and thus running afoul of civil law. Jesus split the difference. He walked a line that said, in effect, one has obligations as a citizen, and one has other obligations as a faithful Jew. And he didn’t get into the details about which was which. Roman money, which was used to pay Roman taxes, had the picture of the Roman emperor. The money one used to pay their obligations at the temple was different. That’s why there were money changers at the temple. That the money changers sometimes exploited the worshippers is a topic for another sermon.
In his first letter to the Christians who have settled in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, Peter reminded the Christians that they were “aliens and exiles,” as Christians living among Gentiles, they were a minority and needed to behave and not call attention to themselves. Yes, of course, they were free people in Christ, but they were not free from obeying the laws of the civil authorities where they lived! He reminded them “Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” As Christians they had one foot in the here, and another in the hereafter. They needed to remember their dual identity. Just as we are both disciples of Christ and citizens of the United States.
Jesus walked a fine, fine line when his opponents tried to trap him, the fine, fine line modern Americans would term the line separating church and state. I like to preach on church/state relations around the 4th of July. You may remember, last year in July I preached about the significance of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a song associated with the Civil War, and also on “Life Every Voice and Sing” a song that is our hymnal that has been called the African-American National Anthem.
The line between church and state has been in the news in the past few months. I am a strong believer in separating church and state. And I believe that the line of separation runs two ways. Government cannot interfere with our ability to worship. For example, 15 years ago, during a flu outbreak in Oshkosh, Wisconsin where I served as the Presbyterian minister, my church received a robocall from the county health department, advising us not to use a common cup for communion to keep the flu from spreading. I heard the message that was left on the church’s answering machine after arriving at church on Sunday morning. I was stunned. I listened to the message a second time. It only advised us not to use a common cup. Had the call compelled us not to use a common cup I would have called the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) because no government agency can interfere with our free exercise of religion. That we did not use a common cup for a communion was beside the point!
This issue is complex because it pits two good things against each other: Public health and freedom to worship. If the choices were between good and bad they would be simple. The choice is between good and good.
Another example that I saw unfold when I lived in Wisconsin pitted the right of the Amish to practice their faith—clearly a good–with the safety of people who drove on Wisconsin roads.
State law required slow-moving vehicles to display brightly colored symbols to make them more visible to vehicles driving the speed limit. Whether that’s a wagon carrying corn to market, or a buggy carrying an Amish family to a quilting bee, the law required slow-moving vehicles to identify themselves. This made everyone safer, not just those travelling in the slow vehicles. Public safety is good.
The Amish faith, however, forbids displays of bright color. Their faith requires them to dress plainly, and that prohibition extends to their buggies. Practicing one’s faith is a right assured by the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Safe roads and freedom to practice one’s religious faith were in tension. A decision that respected both, competing, freedoms required thoughtful compromise.
No right is absolute. A line had to be drawn.
Last month Louisiana’s legislature passed a bill requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in all public classrooms. Shortly after that the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Schools wrote to public schools telling them “to incorporate the Bible into their classroom curriculum.” (Reno Gazette Journal, July 1, 2024, p. A9)
In February of this year the Arizona legislature passed a bill requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed it. You will be hearing a lot more about this topic in the months ahead as different legal challenges wind their way through state and federal courts. Remember: there is nuance and complexity and those who want the Ten Commandments displayed, and those who do not, are sincere and should be respected. This belief is a foundational tenet for Presbyterians:
Our Book of Order says “we…believe that there are truths and forms with respect to which men of good characters and principles may differ. And in all these we think it the duty both of private Christians and societies to exercise mutual forbearance toward each other.” (F-3.0105)
That’s a wordy, 18th century way of saying, “It’s all right to disagree.”
And I like the way Thomas Jefferson, our third President and primary author of The Declaration of Independence, put it: “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
The next time you question the way someone worships, or what their faith requires them to do–or not do–ask yourself, “Does what those people do pick my pocket or break my leg?” If they answer is no, remember people of good conscience and character can disagree. It’s O.K.!
It ought to be obvious, I’ve thought about this issue for a long time. And I have seen how the conversation has changed in the past few decades. One talking point that has appeared recently into the discussion of church and state separation is that the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the Constitution. I have heard members of Congress say this, among them, Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. And this is true, those words do not appear in the Constitution. What does appear in the Constitution are these words, from the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….
The amendment is twofold—government can neither promote religion, nor impede its practice. The argument that separation of church and state does not exist because those particular words in that order not appear in the Constitution is a fallacy along the lines of “since the word ‘Oldsmobile’ does not appear in the Constitution the constitution says nothing about traffic laws.”
I’m going to close this morning by taking a deeper look at the recent legislation passed in Louisiana, which requires posting the Ten Commandments in public classrooms. Some of those in favor of this law have said, “We need to put God back in our schools!” It’s true that the Supreme Court ruled in 1962 that when prayer is organized by the school it is unconstitutional. Note that what is forbidden is prayer organized by the school, not prayer itself. Any student who wants to say grace before opening their brown bag and tucking into their peanut butter and jelly sandwich is can do so. Students can gather around the flag pole before school and pray. And one wit said, “As long as there are pop quizzes in algebra class there will be prayer in public school!” And the idea that the Washoe County School Board can somehow bar the Living God from school grounds is absurd to me. I believe, in good Presbyterian fashion, that the Lord made and controls heaven and earth. The idea that God is somehow excluded from any place is both blasphemous and nutty to me. When children have free reading time, and they get to choose what to read, schools who keep kids from reading the Koran, or the Book of Mormon are in the wrong. The Bible is every bit as acceptable, and should be every bit as acceptable, during free reading time as Captain Underpants or Harry Potter.
Others who are in favor of posting the Ten Commandments have said that they are the foundation of our legal system. The bill passed in Louisiana says, “the Ten Commandments have historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system.” (House Bill No. 71, 2024 Regular Session) Well, this is not accurate. When the founders were drafting the Constitution in Philadelphia in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, they never cited the Ten Commandments during their deliberations. (Andrew Seidel, Attorney on the Staff of Americans United, webinar, July 1, 2024)
Next, I want us to take a close look at exactly the State of Louisiana wants to post in their classrooms. Before I do that, I’d like you to open your Bibles and turn to Exodus 20, which you’ll find on page 51, or Deuteronomy 5, which you’ll find on page 126. Just pick one or the other. Ready? Follow your text while I read the version passed in Louisiana:
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven images.
Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.
Text from Louisiana statute requiring display of 10 Commandments in all public classrooms
Do you know where this text comes from? What version of the Bible this is? Is this the version you found in your Bibles? You might recognize it—if you love movies and have an exceptional memory.
“It’s significant that the Louisiana law uses the same text created for ‘The Ten Commandments’ movie promotions by the Fraternal Order of Eagles and Paramount Pictures because it reminds us that this text isn’t one found in any Bible and isn’t one used by any religious faith,” (Kevin M.) Kruse, (author of “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America) said via email. “Instead, it’s a text that was crafted by secular political actors in the 1950s for their own ends.”
Ten Commandments. Multiple variations. Why the Louisiana law raises preferential treatment concerns (msn.com) accessed June 29, 2024
This is the version of the Ten Commandments that one can still find on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol and other places across the United States.
The fact is, there is no version of the Ten Commandments that could be acceptable to everyone. For example, there are differences between what we find in Exodus and what’s in Deuteronomy. There are many, many different translations of the Bible. You can go to BibleGateway.com and find 63 versions of the Hebrew Bible, for example. And Jews, Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Presbyterians number the commandments differently. There is simply no version, no translation, that is neutral. One version—in the case of Louisiana, a version that no faith tradition accepts, a version that deletes parts of the sacred text—has been endorsed and adopted by the State.
Now I want to raise practical concern. Imagine you’re a third-grade teacher. You’ve got 30 students in your classroom who are reading at different levels. One of them comes up to you and asks, “Mrs. Miller, what does adult-ary mean?” Is that really a topic you want to cover in your classroom? And are kindergarteners really coveting one another’s spouses? Is this a problem that needs our attention?
And consider the language—thy’s and thou’s. Who talks like that?
No one is saying it’s all right to steal, or tell lies, but the text says so much more than that. Selecting one text says who’s in and who’s out. This edited, sacred text of some students is going into every classroom.
There are four families who have petitioned court in Louisiana for an injunction. I heard some of them speak on a webinar Monday evening. Each of these families has kids who attend public school in Louisiana. One is headed by a Unitarian Universalist mother and a Jewish father, another is a Presbyterian minister, the father of three, another is a couple who have chosen not to raise their children in any faith tradition. Children are legally required to attend school. States are legally required to offer free, public education to their resident children. Is it right, or fair, to have “I AM the LORD your God” posted in classrooms that by law have to include everyone? And having these words interferes with the religious instruction that families are constitutionally free to give their children, as my Presbyterian colleague pointed out. (The Reverend Jeff Sims, Pastor of Covington Presbyterian Church, Covington, LA)
We celebrated the founding of our nation last Thursday; July 4, 1776, we declared our independence from Great Britain. Those who signed the Declaration of Independence famously concluded the document with these words: “we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” They were taking an enormous, personal risk in publicly declaring their support for independence from Great Britain. Here’s a bit of trivia that we can all be proud of, among the 55 signers of the declaration, there was one clergyman, John Witherspoon, a delegate from New Jersey, a Presbyterian minister. In fact, there were 12 Presbyterians among the signers.
While there are pseudo-historians who contend that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and there were certainly faithful, observant Christians among the founders. There is a stronger and I would say more authentically American train of thought present at the founding of our nation, and that is one that is open to and welcoming of all religious practices that do not harm others.
In our Book of Order, in the first section, The Foundations of Presbyterian Polity, which was adopted in 1789, after the Constitution was ratified, but before the Bill of Rights, which includes the anti-establishment and free exercise clauses, are these words:
“We do not even wish to see any religious constitution aided by the civil power, further than may be necessary for protection and security, and at the same time, be equal and common to all others.” Book of Order F-3.0101b
That means we don’t want special treatment, we want freedom of religion for everyone, not just people who believe the way we do. As Dr. King said, “No one is free, until we all are free.”
This may be the longest sermon I’ve ever written. I wrote it out so that it would be easy to discuss in the future. Women and men of good conscience can disagree over matters of faith, so I welcome and encourage your thoughts, questions and observations.
