Bible Discussion Thread

How people able to separate religion from politics currently?

We generally have governments who wants to maintain separation of religion from politics. However, from the Middle Ages, it was the government/kings that wanted to control the religious aspects of society, claiming that they had the divine right to do so. Then in medieval Europe, it was the Pope who demanded authority of the Church over the State but in the West (i.e. not popish Europe), governments still exercised some control over the Church.

Then in the Protestant Reformation, it was Martin Luther who brought in the doctrine of the two kingdoms: the start of separation of the Church & State, where it was proposed that the State could not have any authority over the Church. And later (in the American context), Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter, "The Wall of Separation between Church & State" to the Danbury Baptist Assoc. to assure them that the U.S. Bill of Rights prevented the establishment of a national Church, so they had no concerns about government interference to their religious freedoms. So in that letter to the Association in 1802, Jefferson referenced the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, & I quote:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of govt. reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"; thus building a wall of separation between Church and State in the U.S.

And from that, many countries have adopted a similar position of separation. So, maybe your question is how can religion (i.e. knowledge & worship of God) be excluded from the State (politics). The above is one reason & the other, in my perception, is their rejection of anything of God to be incorporated into the law, politics & their thinking.