If Separation of Church and State Doesn’t Demand Separating Religion from Politics, Does Christian Doctrine Require It?

Abstract

This Essay responds to comments by Wayne Barnes, Ian Huyett, and David Smolin on my prior Article, Separation of Church and State: Jefferson, Lincoln, and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Show It Was Never Intended to Separate Religion From Politics. Part II, although noting a few disagreements with Huyett and Smolin, principally argues that they strengthen the case for the appropriateness of religious arguments in the public square. Part III evaluates Wayne Barnes’s contention that Christian doctrine requires separating religion from politics.

Keywords: Church, State, Church and State, Smolin, Huyett, Religion, Religious, Public, Exclusionism, Christian, Politics