An Underemphasized Reason

July 29, 2003

Many of us who believe in the wall of separation between church and state are convinced that if that wall is breached, both individual and associational freedom will suffer. There are churches and religious denominations who seek advantages – getting money from the national budget, imposing particular religious beliefs on public school education, for example. This attitude of “only we have the truth” is illustrated by a quotation from THE FIRST AMERICAN, by H. W. Brands (p.789). Commenting on the fact that some people in England felt possessed of all truths, the apt quotation is, “The only difference between our churches in their opinions, etc., – the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong.”

This attitude, not confined to the churches above, illustrates the necessity of the wall of separation between church and state.

There is another cogent reason: churches and other religious institutions must be free from governmental control and political inroads on religious freedom. This underemphasized reason is highlighted by the following quote in its entirety from the July-August 2003 issue of “Church and State”:

“Atheist Pastor May Keep State Job in Denmark:

“A Danish pastor sparked an uproar recently when he announced that he does not believe in God, but he still may be able to keep his state-paid job.

“The Rev. Thorkild Grosbøll, a Lutheran minister, reportedly said, ‘There is no heavenly God, there is no eternal life, there is no resurrection.’

“Grosbøll was suspended from his pastoral duties June 3 by the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, but his future in the ministry has not yet been determined. In Denmark, the final decision over whether Grosbøll should be defrocked falls to the Danish Government’s Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs. Under Denmark’s constitution, Lutheran priests are employed by the state and cannot be dismissed by bishops.

“Some 85% of Danes belong to the state-supported Lutheran Church, but only 5 percent of the country’s 5.3 million people attend services regularly.”

I believe strongly that the Lutheran Church should have the right and power to establish standards for the ordaining of its clergy and the right to defrock and dismiss those clergy who violate their rules and standards.

I am an equally strong advocate for the same rule for our Unitarian Universalist clergy, as well as for all denominations and religious associations.

That the Danish government has the constitutional power to employ and dismiss Lutheran priests is a powerful reason not to chip away at the wall of separation between church and state, that, praise be, exists in the United States.