Church and state don’t really go great together. There are many things that do go great together. Husbands and wives, chocolate and peanut butter, a burger and fries are a few examples. The problem with mixing church and state is that normally one group gets in the way of the other. The WORST example of the mixing of church and state was in Europe during the middle ages. Imagine if I – Pastor Fred of Star of Bethlehem Lutheran Church – was paid by the city of Winston Salem. You might think that this would be a good use of tax dollars! After all the church does a lot of good for the community. Why not have churches as a wing of the government?
The problem is that he who pays the piper, calls the tune. What would happen if the city would set doctrinal standards for the church? What if the city decided that the Muslim faith was the only state sanctioned religion? Very quickly God’s word wouldn’t be able to be taught at all! This scenario played out in European churches. Another problem was that when the state mandates a certain faith, it can destroy the heart of Christianity. Everyone comes to Star of Bethlehem because they want to do so. I don’t know of anyone being forced to go against their will. I don’t know of an social benefit to attending worship at our church. We do offer community and service along with the sweet hope of the gospel. When you join our church, you know that someone will come for you if you fall away.
Want to hear more, including an active discussion on church and state issues like taxation, marriage, and prayer? Watch this Sunday’s Bible class from our series on politics.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.
You can find all of the Bible classes in our Politics series HERE.