Recently we have all heard about Barry Lynn’s group, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, seeking to silence pastors from preaching in the pulpit on the moral stands of candidates for political office (story/follow up) and our duties as citizens in light of the Lordship of Christ. Our readers will remember that Lynn did not want the video of the debate between us on homosexuality distributed (a video in which he himself admitted in his closing statements he did not fare well), and threatened to sue us to keep people from seeing it.
Obviously, the thinking that underlies such radical left thinking (the local Democratic party supports the investigation requested by Lynn) should be clear: in Lynn’s America “separation of church and state” has no connection whatsoever to what that phrase meant when Jefferson wrote it to a Baptist Church, seeking to assure them that the US Government would not establish an official Christian denomination so as to suppress their rights to gather and worship. No indeed. The original intent of the author of those words is, like the original intent of the writers of the Constitution in the halls of the courts of our land, a quaint but now utterly irrelevant fact of history. Instead, in Lynn’s America, the church is bound and gagged, and the “separation” he longs for is much better described as “suppression.” His desire is to see a completely secular government in which there is no room whatsoever for any consideration of religious morality or divine precept. And given the inarguably Christian origins of the Constitution, his vision is nothing more than a complete overthrow of the intended form of government found therein. Barry Lynn wants pastors to have to think, “Is there a spy in the congregation today?” not only before he might speak the name of a particular candidate, but even when he is in the study preparing a sermon. “Should I speak on the value of human life? But if I do, I must address abortion. But what if we are sued?” And, “I am addressing God’s right to define marriage. But that means I must address homosexuality as well. What if someone is in the congregation and they bring legal action?” This is the America envisioned by the radical left in the US.
