Brent walker, of the Baptist Joint Committee recommended the President revisit the contraceptive issue.  He feared a problematic issue of religious liberty was at stake.  Even though the vast majority of Catholics were not against the mandate, the leaders of the church disagreed.  I have no problem with birth control personally, but understanding the issue of religious liberty means that when one loses their liberty, we all lose some.

Kimball noted in my introduction that there is always a "work in progress" in this clash.  He notes that the founders of the nation set up a government that could have executed Sabbath breakers.  He is well aware of the problems when church runs state or vice versa.

Wheaton College professor and ex- legislator Amy Black has written an interesting book about the intersection of church and state.  Amy is an advocate of separation.  She notes in her book, Beyond Left and Right, that there is no mention of God in the U.S. Constitution.  She notes, "In the common conversation about religion and American politics, most people talk in terms of `church and state.'  At the extremes, one camp raises the alarm that the United State is in danger of becoming a theocracy, while the other worries that God has been entirely removed from the public life."  This viewpoint reminds me of Father Coughlin who said he only had two choices, Communism or Fascism, and he chose Fascism.  Most of us would reply that there are lots of other options, Father.

The latest version of the Texas Fundamentalist newspaper carries an editorial from the editor who wrote that Jimmy Carter was the worst President in the last 100 years.     He might sound strangely opinionated to some and offend many of the church members who liked Carter, but he has a right to his view.  

JFK said , "I believe in an America where the separation of church is absolute--where no Catholic prelate would tell the President...how to act,"   If we are to believe a recent book published by a female Aid to the President, he also believed in separation of his faith from his lifestyle.  Kennedy helped define the issue while LBJ helped legislate the policy that churches are still to abide by.  A recent report by Catholic female students claims that these women desire the contraceptives.  There is an apparent disconnect between the pulpit and the pew.  Some studies suggest Southern Baptist laymen support abortion choices.  This further complicates the debate.

Church and State magazine claims a Saudi woman who was 75 was given 40 lashes and four months in prison for "mingling."  A 19 year old rape victim was also given 200 lashes and 6 months in prison.  Folks need to recall stories like this when they claim we are near to a theocracy.  When reports circulate that over $390 million is spent each year in the nation for Christian lobbyists it is hard to conclude that Christians are being banished from the public square.

Catholic charities gets most of its funds from the government.  Baptist children's homes are mostly funded by tax dollars.  A local county boasts it now sentences wayward youth to attend church.  The agency doing such assures me the District Attorney says this is legal. In Minnesota an Islamic school has been given over $2 million in public funding.  The template still needs work.  

Obviously our society is somewhere  between a theocracy and a place where faith is banished from the public square. Fleshing out how exactly it works is still being defined.  You can raise more money by alarmist statements claiming either extreme is the norm.  It does not help in the civil discourse in doing such.  

I have known several key Christian leaders from Tyler, Texas.  None of them even knew who Gary North, the famous Christian Reconstruction was.  His headquarters is there.  In the same light the small group who sought to use the courts to stop Perry's The Response, only served to help raise boatloads of money for the American Family Association.  

Vanderbilt University has a church/state group working to ease some of these tensions.  The name of its publication is, Finding Common Ground.  A healthy title for a difficult yet much needed proposition for hostile times.