China’s Church and the State

I know Christians who snort derisively whenever the phrase “separation of church and state” is uttered in their presence, as if it’s a great big sham being foisted on us by the “powers that be,” something intended to prevent us from speaking out in the public square on the “big issues”. But in reality, the separation of church and state is actually a good thing. For some evidence of this, just look to China, where the government works to override religious freedoms via a state-sanctioned church.

Richard W. Garnett has written a fascinating opinion piece for USA Today that delves more deeply into this matter while highlighting some of the benefits of a church/state separation.

The struggle for the church’s freedom in China reminds us that what the separation of church and state calls for is not a public conversation or social landscape from which God is absent or banished. The point of separation is not to prevent religious believers from addressing political questions or to block laws that reflect moral commitments. Instead, “separation” refers to an institutional arrangement, and a constitutional order, in which religious institutions are free and self-governing — neither above and controlling, or beneath and subordinate to, the state. This freedom limits the state and so safeguards the freedom of all — believers and non-believers alike.

For more on this issue, I recommend reading the second chapter of Randall Balmer’s Thy Kingdom Come.

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