This phrase is kind of
ambiguous. Some people actually mean
separation of church and state, while others mean
separation of religion and state,
or perhaps even
separation of religious morality and state. If you want to make
yourself clear, refer to something more meaningful, like the part of your constitution/law
regarding laws about religions. The following writeup is somewhat muddled in definition,
but I hope you can extract my message. I seem to be treating it as a single idea that we should either
take fully or not at all.
There are so many reasons why this separation is a good thing for even
us Christians:
- Churches don't need extra power. Their duty can be accomplished
just fine as merely a meeting of people.
- Avoiding infiltration of politics into the church. Without the separation,
not only would goverment
become a tool of the church, but the church would be a tool of the
government.
- Freedom. If there is a quibble within the church, you should not
get a forced silencing of one side. You may be called a heretic, but
you are not burned. The separation is especially good if the leading theology
is crazy (see previous item).
- ...
I could go on with the specifics, but I'll just say that these two
organisations do not work together.
Constantine screwed up things pretty
badly, in my humble opinion.
On one hand, we want a law that says
"do not kill", yet we want to lawfully allow people to be selfish in their
choices, which is just
as much a condemning sin as murder. The conflict between allowing people
to be selfish and giving other things precedence has resulted in
a few controversies. Perhaps the basis of our laws should be
secular morality - to leave the judging to God.