There is no such thing as true separation of church and state, but this little article will explain the concept. See James Madison for many of the issues. A better title would be religious freedom. 

 Martin Luther developed the understanding of the right-hand kingdom being the church and the left-hand kingdom being the government. Both kingdoms have their own distinct purpose. The Church’s position is to offer the forgiveness of sins and grace on behalf of Jesus Christ. The Government’s job is to create law and order and to use laws and the sword (i.e. all means of punishment) to establish such law and order. 

 Luther taught that the Government should not be telling the church how to be the church, in other words it should not tell the church how to forgive people etc. Likewise, the church should not tell the government how to apply the law. 

 Why such a separation? Two case scenarios are helpful. The Baptist church might decide that the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is doing evil by baptizing infants so the government should step-in and lock up all LCMS pastors. Obviously, such an action would be the Baptist Church usurping the Federal Government to beat up another church. Likewise, the government should not say to Calvary Lutheran Church, “Church, you need to hire woman to be pastors to meet employment discrimination rights.” This would be wrong because Calvary needs to listen to God not the government. 

 However, though there must be separation, the separation is mostly administrative, because every Christian must full live out his Christian beliefs fully both in the left- and right-hand kingdom. As a Christian working in government, I live out my faith by following all 10 commandments in public life. For example, I may use the means of the government to care for the poor and needly. Likewise, I might try to wield the sword of government to prevent suicide, abortion, and even promote healthy families which lead to better society. A democracy cannot function without moral/Christian people. Imagine a society where coveting and not putting the best construction on everything were the norm. 

 A second example, I knew a Judge growing up, Judge Sheridan, he would sentence youth to prison and community service. He would use the full force of the law with the gavel to punish wrong doing. But he would take off his robes after sentencing the person and then work with them as a Christian sharing Jesus and forgiveness. Judge Sheridan acted both in the left-hand kingdom punishing wrong but turning around in the right-hand kingdom and sharing Jesus. Both kingdoms are upheld fully! 

 We as Christians ultimately cannot separate our life in both kingdoms, however both kingdoms must not enforce laws over each other in the function of law and gospel. 

A crazy caveat: The government makes a law that a building must have fire exits. It forces its law on the church to protect the people using the building. This is the proper separation of church and state, as the government is acting by law to protect people even in the church. However, if the government says, “You can’t meet because they believe in Jesus and are against abortion,” then this would be a violation of the separation of church and state. 

A second caveat: Pastors do not preach for or against individual candidates running for government office, however, pastors will and should preach against the policies of the candidate. For example: A pastor should say do not vote for people who are pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality, pro-lying, prolawlessness, etc.. Instead, vote for people who will use law and order to maintain justice and order in society.” We could say, presently, this candidate is saying good things and this one is holding poor positions, but to out rightly endorse publicly would be to assume that the person would remain the same once elected to office. The elected officially very easily could do the exact opposite of what they said when running for office! This is the nature of people in public office. 

Religious Freedom is a better name for this concept than Separation of Church and State. This is definitely not Separation of the State from Church! Church people better carry out morals in the church! In Christ, Pastor James Travis 

Picture:  File:The intersection of Church and State (78728221).jpg - Wikimedia Commons