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Editor’s note: Throughout the summer, Living Lutheran is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence with articles reflecting on the church’s role in civic life and Lutheran contributions to the history of the United States. All articles will carry our America 250 logo.
In this reprint from Feb. 2, 1976, we hear from George H. Muedeking, editor of the Lutheran Standard, the magazine of the American Lutheran Church (1960-1980). His editorial reflects on the Declaration of Independence and encourages us to consider how the church should “look upon the government, or the state upon its religious institutions.”
In our village lib
rary, visitors are invited to sign a facsimile of the Declaration of Independence. It is certain that many whose names are found there could not have read the words. For even many congressmen would refuse to sign it—namely, those legislators who sponsored S-1, the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 1975. This bill would restore the Smith Act, which makes it a crime to advocate a revolutionary change in government.
We can easily understand why people would refuse to sign the Declaration of Independence. It says that whenever a government becomes destructive of human rights, like the pursuit of happiness, “it is the right of the people to alter and abolish” that government. Who wants to put his name to such a revolutionary document? Does it give Squeaky Fromme the right to pull a gun on the president because the government’s protection of big business, as she said, prevents her pursuit of happiness?
To join in the Revolution of 1776 was no simple matter then. Countless governments have toppled since because people read and believed the declaration; its contents raise no light question today either.
Is separation possible?
This question of how people can live together successfully is also discussed in the Bible. How shall the church look upon the government, or the state upon its religious institutions? Though some like to believe that Lutherans shouldn’t touch this problem with a 10-foot pole, it is certain that the living Lutheran church always has had to come to terms with it. Luther stood before the top government official of Europe at Wurms and said, in effect, “I won’t knuckle under to your law, no matter what, because you’re trying to make me do wrong.” The Lutherans of Germany and Scandinavia went to their death to defy Hitler and the Nazi government. Lutherans behind the iron and bamboo curtains did, too. Today Namibia and Chile Lutherans face a similar future.
Even the strictest separatists recognize that the church has the responsibility of promoting among the citizenry the ideals which make good and honest government possible.
It seems hopeless to try to keep church and state, religion and politics, apart from each other. Many wish it could be done. Let an article on gun control appear in this magazine, for example, and our mail is flooded with demands that the church should stay out of politics, as though the Fifth Commandment and killing people were issues raised first in some political party’s platform. Bible verses like Matthew 22:15-22 often are marched across the pages of these letters, especially the key one: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
That Bible verse is dynamite, however. For if we ask, “What belongs to Caesar that does not belong to God?” the answer must be, “Nothing; nothing at all.” He is King of all kings, Lord of all lords. Caesar himself belongs to God. So does any and every government. Otherwise he could not be God.
No separation
The fact is, neither government nor church is going to permit either to be separated from the other. An Asia-desk world mission church executive says, “Japan and Hong Kong may be the only exceptions where the government does not directly interfere in the life and work of the Christian church.” The same, in one degree or another, could be said of almost every nation where Christianity is found. The few countries around the globe where such interference is not found are most likely those where the church is busy making moral demands upon the state.
This is all strictly within the biblical pattern. The liberation of slaves becomes known as the Exodus. The prophet Nathan calls on King David to repent. God tells the heathen dictator of Persia—“whose right hand I have upheld to subdue nations”—“I … call you by your name, for the sake of … Israel my chosen” (see Isa. 45:1-7). The war described in Revelation 13 is that of a powerful government trying to impose its will and destructiveness upon God’s church.
It seems then that nobody, certainly not the writers of the Bible, really believes religion and government can exist separately. Even the strictest separatists recognize that the church has the responsibility of promoting among the citizenry the ideals which make good and honest government possible.
The problem rather is which doctrines and teachings out of the Bible can most helpfully inform the structures of government and their relationships to the church. The Lutheran faith professes three doctrines which can instruct us. They are the bondage of the will, the grace and loving rescue of humanity in Jesus Christ, and the teaching of God’s double-way caring for human society by his law and gospel. The best contribution Lutherans could make to the bicentennial would be the sharing of these doctrines with our country.
