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Mixing Religion and Politics – Amen!

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

This past weekend, Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky hosted an event called “Justice Sunday”, in which many national speakers participated.  The event was intended to support the so-called “Constitutional Option”, by which the U.S. Senate would change its rules in order to prevent filibusters on judicial nominees.  Conservative Christians want President Bush to appoint judges who will exercise restraint rather than legislating from the bench, and they do not want the Democrats to continue using the filibuster to block the President’s nominees.  The “Justice Sunday” event was intended to draw attention to the harm that is caused when judges ignore the law and become unelected legislators rather than judges.  As might be imagined, Democrats are complaining about the event as being an improper mixing of church and state leading to a Theocracy.

However, those who complain about the mixing of church and state in such an event are hypocrites and ignore reality.  All people have a religious world view, including atheists, and they carry that view with them at all times.  It affects all the decisions they make in their lives, including their political decisions.  It is no more possible to separate a person’s religious world view from his political view than to separate his head from his body.  That’s why the whole concept of separating church and state is ridiculous. It simply cannot be done.

We should recognize that even the concept of preventing a state-sponsored religion, as required in the First Amendment, grew out of a traditional Christian world view.  The traditional Christian belief in free will, respect for every individual, and internal self-control have been the foundation for our tolerant, “live and let live” tradition.  Atheists, Humanists, and others have been freeloading on that tradition for many years, using it to protect themselves even as they seek to destroy it.

While the Democrats try to create a panic about a growing Republican “Theocracy”, the fact is that we always have been and will continue to be a theocracy of sorts; the only question is what type of theocracy we will be.  Will we be a country based primarily on the traditional Christian views of free will and respect for every individual, giving rise to tolerance and minimal government interference in our lives, or will we be a country that relies on government mandates and regulations to force people to “be good”?  Will we respect the rule of law and other institutions, or will we appoint activist judges who ignore the plain meaning of the law?

Democrats are perfectly happy when their brand of Theocracy and their religious world view gain political power, even to the point of supporting activist judges who ignore the law in order to impose their world view on others who do not share it.  What really upsets them is a loss of political power and the prospect that they might be prevented from using the courts to forcibly impose their brand of Theocracy on others. 

Democrats play fast and loose with the Constitution, and then they try to hide behind what is left of it to defend their position.  In this case, they say that eliminating the filibuster for Presidential nominees would be unconstitutional, despite the fact that such a rule is not in the Constitution.  Of course, with the kinds of judges they want to put on the bench, the Constitution will be twisted to mean anything they want, rendering it meaningless and impotent.  Similarly, they play fast and loose with religion, claiming that their positions on abortion, homosexuality, and other issues are Christian positions, twisting the Bible to mean anything they want in order to satisfy their goals. 

Sadly, Democrats do not realize that the tolerance they claim to want in the public arena has grown out of the very same traditional Christian values they abhor, and the Constitution can only function to protect minorities when judges act with restraint and act within the limits placed on them by the law.  They want the benefit of the fruit even as they work to cut down the tree on which it grows.  The reality is that things do not work that way.  Once the tree has been cut down, there will be no more fruit.  We will not have tolerance; we will not have a rule of law; we will simply have a tyranny in which the biggest bullies will control us all.

Most tyrannies in our time have sought to stamp out traditional religious beliefs and values in order to control the people.  The Democrats are now taking that approach, pursuing their own faith-based agenda in an attempt to create a heaven on earth through government.  In defiance of thousands of years of human experience, they still are trying to create a Utopian society by destroying traditional values and institutions and using government coercion to remake mankind in accordance with their ideal.  I only hope that, in this faith-based war, the traditional religious values and institutions, rooted in the proof of thousands of years of human experience, will win.

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