SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

"Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our characteras being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus."--John Ashcroft, Commencement address given on May 8, 1999, upon receiving an honorary degree at ultra-right-wing and ultra-fundamentalist Bob Jones University, also known for its anti-African-American segregationist policies.

"The 'wall of separation between church and state' is a metaphor based onbad history, a metaphor which has proved useless as a guide to judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned." -- William Rehnquist, Dissenting Opinion in Wallace v. Jaffree (1985)

Jesus explicitly rejected temporal kingship, as the work of Satan.

Luke 4 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7So if you worship me, it will all be yours." 8Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Jesus maintained a clear separation between church and state.

"Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." (Mk. 12:17, Mt. 22:21, Lk. 20:25)

John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place."