When we left Megan's birthday party to drive home the guy on the radio said the temp in Phoenix was 106. Forty years ago today the high in Las Vegas was 106 degrees. We rode from West Oakey Baptist Church back to Pam's folks' house in the back of their 1967 VW Beetle with our best man and maid of honor in front. There's no AC in a '67 Beetle and we were dressed to the nines in wedding regalia. We were also crazy kids.
Liked being back at Pathway this morning. I've been gone for three of the last four Sundays and I was beginning to feel like a delinquent, a genuine slacker.
I'm thankful for the First Amendment and firmly believe the separation of church and state is essential to the health of both. I'm no historian but I know enough about the centuries following Constantine's conversion (genuine or not) to understand how bad things go for the church when it joins with civil government. The rise of the Roman Catholic Church and the Dark Ages were the direct result. I also believe a democracy is indeed government of, by and for the people - all the people, regardless of their racial, economic, religious or any other characteristic.
I am as committed to the truth of the gospel as any Christian on earth. I believe Acts 4:12, et al, that only through faith in the substitutionary death of Christ does anyone have a relationship with God in this life or in the life to come. But even while I reject that salvation is found in any other Person or religion I believe just as strongly that an individual's religious convictions or total lack thereof must have no bearing on their rights as a citizen of this country.
And that's why I've come to realize over the last couple of days that I cannot support Texas governor Rick Perry's bid for the Republican nomination should he decide to go that direction - as it seems he will. At "The Response" rally he addressed a stadium of evangelicals and told them the Bible has the answers for our political problems and the solution starts with repentance for our sins. He has also said God will tell him if he should run for President or not. I'm always scared when someone says God told them to do - or not do - something. "God told me to marry Suzy." (Never mind that he forgot to tell Suzy the same thing.)
If I were an American Muslim, or a Jew, or an atheist I'd be very nervous about someone who links their decision to run and their assessment of our national policies inextricably to their Christian faith. And those non-Christians have every right to full representation and support from their elected officials. For that reason the faith of those officials must be a personal faith. Yes, I want our President to be a believer and I want him/her to pray for wisdom for the difficult decisions of that job. But the critical separation of church and state requires that a candidate or potential candidate keep their faith out of the political discourse. It's not that they have to be an undercover Christian; many Presidents have openly attended church, associated with Christian leaders, participated in prayer breakfasts and the like. But they didn't call America to turn to God and Scriptural principles. To do so cuts out the greatest portion of our citizenry. Doing so may make for good political math (25% of Republicans identify themselves as evangelical Christians) but it doesn't make for good leadership for an increasingly diverse country.
And then there's the whole issue of Gov. Perry's particular interpretation of Scripture. If he's going to link his political decisions to his understanding of Scripture I want to know a lot more about his hermeneutics!
IMHO, FWIW
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