Church And State

WARSAW, Poland -- The country's Roman Catholic bishops demanded this week that Poland abolish the constitutional separation of church and state.They asked instead that Poland's fundamental charter be rewritten to reflect the majority's Catholic morality."

When I read or hear a story about the separation of church and state, it's hard for me to relate. When I was growing up in the inner city on Baltimore's west side, I saw firsthand the challenges that urban kids face: poverty, violence, promiscuity, chemical addictions and family disintegration. The government has spent trillions of dollars trying to reverse this spiral of social disintegration, yet the problems grow worse each day. The separation of church and state is a suburban, not an urban, issue.

Congratulations to the Salisbury City Council for doing something that President Barack Obama and the Republicans can't seem to do: come up with a compromise. Where congressional Republicans seem to think compromise constitutes collaboration (alliteration alert!), members of the Salisbury City Council see compromise as the hybrid fruit of the democratic process. And huzzah to all that! Of course, the matter on which the Salisburians compromised has no place in an American government setting, but you still have to appreciate their regard for accommodation.

An Ellicott City church's request for county government help in reducing borrowing costs on up to $10.1 million for school buildings is raising questions about the separation of church and state. The issue, in the form of a County Council resolution approving economic development revenue bonds, will be discussed at Monday night's public hearing, and is scheduled for a vote July 30. "We want to serve the community," said Glen Mar United Methodist Church's pastor, Andy Lunt, about the facilities under construction on the church's new 22-acre campus on Route 103 at New Cut Road.

WASHINGTON - President Bush took his first step yesterday toward giving religious organizations and private charities access to billions of dollars in federal funds, an outreach effort designed to facilitate services for needy Americans. The initiative could become a pivotal test of how far the nation's laws mandating separation of church and state can stretch. "Compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government," the president said as he signed two executive orders to implement his proposal.

Last Sunday in Baltimore's St. Vincent de Paul Church, its longtime pastor, the Rev. Richard T. Lawrence, delivered a thoughtful and nuanced argument for support of the Question 6 ballot referendum. This, of course, was news in Roman Catholic circles — an opinion from the pulpit fully at odds with the hierarchy of a church that has devoted much time and money to voter rejection of a Maryland law that allows couples of the same sex to wed. Lawrence is the most eloquent homilist I've ever heard.

God seems to be getting more and more involved in American Politics. We have three Republican candidates, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain, who each claim that God told them to run! Now either two, or perhaps all three, are lying, or God is messing with two of them! Which do you think it is? Does God have a sense of humor after all? Now today I see in the Sunpaper that Kennett Gore has also apparently been spoken to by God when He told Kennett to "Do what is right in the sight of God," which is apparently to make sure that marriage is only allowed for the union of one man and one woman.

The best thing for Baltimore would be Kweisi as mayor. The worst would be special-interest legislation to bring that about.Scientists share information. Weapons makers don't. Know which you are.The wall of separation between church and state has gates open wide in Maryland.Soon the electric power market will be as deregulated and confusing here as the telephones. What an improvement.Pub Date: 3/17/99

IN the current issue of Liberty, the magazine of the North American Division of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Samuel Rabinove of the American Jewish Committee reminds readers of the reasons behind the separation of church and state. Here are some excerpts:"In my view, religions will fare better if they encourage the government to keep hands off, neither hindering nor helping them. Any religion that cannot thrive without governmental assistance does not deserve to thrive. No religion should be beholden to government, but rather all should be free to bear prophetic witness against government if events so require."

SPRINGFIELD, Va. -- The phenomenon of school shootings stems predictably from the moral vacuum wrought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other anti-religionists of the Madalyn Murray O'Hair variety. What did they expect to happen when they pushed America down the slippery slope of eradicating Judeo-Christian expression from the public square?The Founding Fathers established a government that embraced liberty and law. At the center stood individual self-control. And clearly, the Founders understood that religion and the moral education of the Bible would be necessary to cultivate that self-control.