tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post2174685161966499538..comments2024-03-24T19:55:32.537-05:00Comments on The View from This Seat: What about Separation of Church and State?LKSeathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08860725174433173015noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-19852773807215929772010-11-05T17:49:16.367-05:002010-11-05T17:49:16.367-05:00We live in an age of integration, and that include...We live in an age of integration, and that includes everything from integrated schools to integrated circuits. Much of the genius of our age comes from putting the unexpected together.<br /><br />So what does this have to do with separation? Well, separation has had its day, from separation of church and state to separation of commercial and investment banking. The collapse of the latter separation in the late 1990s due to heavy lobbying and eventual legal change (the end of the Glass-Steagall Act) brought about much of the financial disaster we are now living through. So the impending threat to the separation of church and state is not a trivial matter. However, how to deal with it is not easy or obvious, either.<br /><br />Free and faithful Baptists whom have survived the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention have decades of experience in losing. We have been terrible salesmen. And women. Molly Marshall could not stop them either!<br /><br />Perhaps we should start by recognizing where we are. We are in the wilderness. There are two kinds of people in the wilderness. One kind yearns to go back to the leeks and onions in Egypt. The other kind explores the mystery of a burning bush. The wilderness is where God calls Her prophets. In the wilderness, prophets receive their training.<br /><br />Baptists, and many others, are not comfortable with the concept of prophets. Certainly the title of "prophet" has been serially abused by those who have exploited it secular potential. However, when we sit down in sackcloth and ashes, wondering what to make of the separation of church and state, we are in a very different place. A place where the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. <br /><br />The great mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote a book titled "The Hero with a Thousand Faces." It is natural rhythm. Out into the wilderness to learn. Back to the community to serve. Sometimes it is as simple as going off to college. Sometimes it is as deep as a still small voice. Theologian Paul Tillich wrote of "the shaking of the foundations" and "the mountains heaving to and 'fro" as he drew on biblical themes to explain a life that spanned two world wars and the Great Depression.<br /><br />Do not despair. Look for your burning bush!Craig Dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00033176451913108084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-12613820405814603792010-11-05T14:43:19.447-05:002010-11-05T14:43:19.447-05:00Thanks Leroy for this comment. We had a tragic day...Thanks Leroy for this comment. We had a tragic day here in WI losing our fine Senator and electing a real, well I can't say here, as Governor. I am concerned about the issues of religion that are now being pushed by the right, the republicans and FIXED News. They create a fear and it moves towards hatred and violence. Thanks for the witness Leroy!Chasing Wind Mills, Why Not?https://www.blogger.com/profile/15322599042831670622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8355086750486200439.post-31385904195534309912010-11-05T09:14:57.695-05:002010-11-05T09:14:57.695-05:00Thanks for your thoughts Leroy. Of the many things...Thanks for your thoughts Leroy. Of the many things more at risk now with a stronger Republican presence in the Congress is religious liberty and the fundamental principal of church-state separation.<br /><br />Congress will be losing it's chief advocate of this with the loss of Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas. He has long been a freind of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and has been a strong and consistent voice in Congress on these issues.<br /><br />The only thing that may help us in the next two years is that Congress may be far too distracted by the economy and health care to give much attention to obliterating Jefferson's "wall of separation." It can't be too far down their list of agenda items, but it might be just.<br /><br />More than Congress not threatening it, those of us in our churches cannot be complacent by it. We must do more to remind our Baptist church families that we are the historic defenders of religious liberty. How will we ever be ready/able to rise up against the increased threats to church-state separation when we seem so indifferent about it?David M. Fulknoreply@blogger.com