Should Religion and Politics Mix?

The greatest political impact was the assumption that the answer to America's problems was the education of her children. The answer to America's superiority in the world, her dominance as a world superpower, was the proper education of her children according to popular opinion thanks to the enlightenment. Even the answer to war and peace, love, compassion, etc. was the proper education of America's children. With this emphasis upon education came a mentality that the separation of church and state, an emphasis upon religious freedom, meant that the governing authorities were to make decisions based on no religion. The moment the powers that be adopted a so-called neutral worldview from which to teach in the public school system, the church was largely marginalized.

Furthermore, once the church turned their children over to the government to be educated, the church's influence declined. Like good little citizens, the church reserved her worship for the private realm, virtually refusing to live in God's world in the workplace, school system, etc. Thus, from my parents onward, we have a nation that has been taught evolution is true; that naturalism reigns. God has been divorced from this education process. Though we would never allow Muslims or Mormons to educate our children for 35+ hours per week, the church often thinks nothing of the government educating her children from an Atheistic worldview. If this is God's world, and we're just living in it, then all truth is true because God created it true. To divorce Him from the education process in His world is to teach Atheism.

Thus, we have a church that largely thinks like Atheists in the public realm, while attempting to faithfully serve the Lord in the private realm. This is why divorce is high, abortion, etc. This is also why Christians can be privately conservative and very moral while still being politically liberal and immoral. The church lives in two worlds... the Devil's and God's world while professing to live only in God's world. Education is viewed, not as an avenue to bring God's glory, but as a necessity in order to prosper in God's world. Biblically and historically, education is not the answer, for we are more educated as a nation than we have ever been, and look at us.

The gospel is the answer to all that is wrong with the world, including our nation. All decisions are religious and all political leaders make their decisions based on whether or not they live in the Christian God's world, or some other god's, or many gods, or no god. When people try to eliminate God from the process altogether, they teach their children that one does not need God in order to learn about truth in His world. The church's children have been taught this right beside the children of Atheists, Buddhists, etc. The church must take back her responsibility to educate her children, whether it is private schools, or re-teaching our children when they return home. Something must be done, for we are still living in the wake of the exaltation of the enlightenment. In other words, the church is still being affected by this reality. We are children of Caesar instead of God; and this continues from one generation to the next.