Landon Coleman is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Odessa. Reach him at landon@immanuelodessa.com or read his blog at Regular Pastor.com “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Our founding fathers wisely made this the “first” amendment. They knew from experience just how easy and messy it was for government to get mixed up with religion, so they wrote the “first” amendment. In the twenty-first century there are some voices who appeal to the first amendment and talk about “the separation between church and state” anytime a politician or judge expresses their faith or acts on their faith. This is certainly not the kind of “separation” the founders had in mind. In fact, while rejecting the notion that the United States was founded on the Christian faith, John Adams also insisted that, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” What in the world do we do with […]
