Letter: The separation of church and state is America's biggest lie

The letter from Rachel Laser, “Abortion bans undermine church-state separation,” necessitates another viewpoint. Laser says abortion bans violate the separation of church and state and “impose on everyone the narrow religious doctrine of a few.”

Progressives like Laser want us to believe the Constitution includes a wall of “separation of church and state.” The First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The Founders wanted to ensure that a citizen didn’t have to belong to a certain church or religion in order to become a government official or even the president.

This flawed wall of “separation of church and state” application was hijacked from a Thomas Jefferson letter for the purpose of finding a legal justification to remove God from government and therefore society. In my opinion this unconstitutional interpretation has led to cultural chaos where truth is relative, right and wrong are ambiguous and killing is legal.

Progressives use “separation of church and state” to argue against a national religion. But what they are really separating is God (not church) from government and promoting secularism. The state becomes god. In other words, we become an atheistic society. So what is the moral standard that government uses to legislate and enforce laws? Whose morality guides our lawmakers to do what’s right for the common good of society?

So we have a choice. Do we want laws that are good in the eyes of God or evil in his sight? Do we want laws that promote and respect life or laws that deny it and celebrate death? Do we want laws that define us as men and women or ones that lead to binary chaos? Do we want laws that give parents control over their children or to people who think they know what’s best for them? Do we want laws that enshrine our religious freedoms or laws that weaken them and make us turn away from our deeply held religious beliefs?

It is no coincidence that as America has become more secular, it has also become less free. The truth is a secular America divides us and diminishes our freedoms, whereas an America that turns to God unites us and gives us freedom.

Bishop Athanasius Schneider wisely said, “The relationship between the Church and political and human society is analogous to the relationship between the soul and the body. A human political society will not have true progress and prosperity if it bans the influence and reign of Christ over it. Without Christ the King, human society in time becomes morally and spiritually a corpse, because of the absence of its soul.”

I believe the “separation of church and state” deception is America’s “Biggest Lie.” We can still return to common sense and truth but only by returning to God - the same God our Founders acknowledged and believed in since 1776. “We the people” must tear down the “wall” that separates us from God. His salutary divine teachings have to reign not only in our souls, but also in our schools, our universities, and our government.

Ken Sims lives in Moorhead.

This letter does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum's editorial board nor Forum ownership.