15: What About the Separation of Church & State?

Often times, certain secular progressives attack Christians by asserting that any person of faith should not ever use their faith or religious beliefs to determine their political ideologies. There is supposedly a “separation of church and state” and that’s supposed to keep Christians from using the Bible to determine how they vote in the United States of America; or this concept is aimed at keeping Christians from using the Bible to determine which political policies they choose to support or challenge. The challenge usually includes a demand for a secular moral code, separate from the Bible, or the challenge includes a demand that Christians back up their moral beliefs with something other than the Bible. Is this challenge consistent with the beliefs of our founding fathers? In this episode, Kenny examines the origin and meaning of the phrase “separation of church and state” in its historical context, highlighting that the term never appears anywhere in our founding documents. Kenny clearly explains that the First Amendment was designed to protect the people from the government, not keep religious ideology out of the legislative process; and by using quotes from the Founding Fathers, Kenny makes the case that we are expected to use our religiously-informed morality to develop our political ideologies. Recommended: Words of the Founding Fathers (ed. Steve Coffman)