Politics and Religion do Mix

In public life there is often talk of people of faith imposing what they view as right on others. They think that it violates a long standing tradition of separating church and state. While this phrase separation of church and state is not found anywhere in the US Constitution it does say that "the government shall make not establishment of religion. Thomas Jefferson in 1803 argued that there should be a wall of separation between church and state.

But Thomas Jefferson also penned the immortal words " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Thomas Jefferson's religious beliefs that god was the source of certain unalienable rights, or rights that cannot be given or taken away, led him to declare those rights into law. Thomas Jefferson connects his religious beliefs to the belief of government when he stated "That to secure these rights, (divinely given political rights) Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed," Jefferson codified his religious beliefs into secular law. So if Jefferson wanted a complete separation of religious belief and from the public life, why was his religious belief in one of our most hallowed documents?

But the same man who wrote that all men have should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness had slaves. I do not view him as a hypocrite I view the founding fathers as having such high ideals that even they could not reach the ideals. Many were opposed to slavery personally but were not opposed to others having slaves. According to the law slaves were property and it was not right for another man to dictate what he should do with his property.

But those who opposed slavery organized in churches. They preached from the pulpit the immorality of slavery and the need for political action. Their religious beliefs the equality of all men that Jesus taught led them to believe that slavery was wrong. Not in just in the North but universally. It was the work of these Christians that led to the over turning of slavery. In the Northern New England Christians imposed on the Southern Christians a belief that came from a religious doctrine.

But these former slaves had rights by law but not rights in practice. While they had the right to vote in theory they were denied in many ways. A voter registration official could ask any question he wanted to the applicant questions such as how many bubbles in a bar of soap were perfectly legal questions. To confront this injustice the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. started organizing political action through his religious congregations. He used the pulpit to the immorality of segregation much like the abolitionist movement a century before.

Now the great debates in our society rage on. Abortion whether one person can dictate the life or death of another. As it stands right now women have as much control over another individuals life as a slave master had over his property. Both a slavery and abortion are protected by law. It is not enough for people to say that they are personally opposed abortion but will allow others such a right. That is like saying think that murder is wrong but I if others want to murder that is their right because we can't impose our beliefs on them. We must stand for what we believe in.

the anti-abortion movement is organized the same way the abolitionist and the civil rights movement were organized through churches. They preach the immorality of abortion gay rights and other immoral plagues of our time. It is not enough to say to each his own. We must put our religious beliefs and codify them into action. Impose as all laws do our beliefs of what is right and just and true. If we allow such laws to occur than they are imposing on us their values and their beliefs.

Religion in politics is not the bane of American politics but has been blessed by it. When people with religious speak out and stand up for what they believe in America benefits from it. Why are beliefs that originate from Jesus not acceptable in 21st century public life but views from Karl Marx are acceptable? Why does the source of a belief matter? Religious extremists think that well if all people thought like me there would be no conflict. Secularists have the same fallacy if you divorce yourself from all religious thought, become a secular thinker, then there would be no conflict in the world. So what we need is not a divorcing of religious and the political beliefs but an embracing of them.