Introduction
Throughout all the time people were attached to religion in different ways. In ancient times, idols and rituals played an essential role in humans’ lives and influenced their beliefs and actions. For instance, festivals in ancient Egypt gave a good chance for people to gather and celebrate their traditions in a special way. In Middle Ages, the church was putting a significant impact on government and its decisions. Closer to nowadays, most of the modern countries have separated branches for religion and state. Talking about Christianity, Bible has always been a path for believers that has led them through hard periods, hesitations, and sorrows. Now, the state has rapidly changed its views, so many Christians struggle to understand what a decent action is when interests of government and religion face each other. It is hard to separate personal moral beliefs and the state as the world people live in has things happen parallelly. The church and the government differ nowadays, however, they are interconnected, and a modern Christian should find the golden middle to balance between them.
Christianity and the State
There are various ways in which the church and the state can cooperate. When the state stands above the church and controls the peoples’ religion, it puts an authoritarian effect on the population and narrows the borders of their freedom. At the same time, when the church dominates the state, it can put an effect on minor numbers of the population of different religious views.
Thinking of the church as the main organ controlling laws and systems, it might be judicial to say that it manages the political part of the governmental work. Religion gives people a set of decent moral values with which one can confidentially start living life. It is hard to disagree with a statement by McQuilkin, Robertson, and Paul Copan that God has given humans the ability to utilize general disclosure to understand how God’s world works and how to get along with it. The third scenario is when church and state work in symbiosis and create a balance in society that provides both moral entities and law and system functioning. Decision-making today in Western countries can be described as a democratic model where the majority decides what happens. Democracy is one of the tools to make people speak and express themselves in several problematic issues.
However, the last scenario is hard to reach but should always be aimed. Now, with the modern position of the state, the government has no firm position in supporting moral values and ethics taught by the Christian religion. Without bases of morality, society can reach the level of a relationship constantly aiming at beneficial needs, and when everyone wants to win, eventually, all will lose. The endless battle between moral beliefs and actual inclinations in human nature is the dark side of the ethical mystery. What the state should do, is to support the honorable values and beliefs, however, not impose the Christian principles on individuals with other religions. With a symbiosis like that, government and church can create true cooperation that can help bring up the future generation and give every individual an opportunity to find the balance of beliefs and moral principles.
Christian Engagement in Society
Every Christian of modern society with a strong belief and faith can help government form a better environment. For instance, China’s one-child restrictions lead to loss of reproductive freedom, destruction of sex ratio, and misinterpretation of the marriage institution. However, the fight of people along with their moral standards took the restrictions on a number of childbirths away. Being not afraid to express their opinion, people can cooperate with the state and provide good ideas for the changes in laws, systems, and other organizational issues.
Respect shown in any relationship can be a key element of building a harmonical relationship. It is well-known that religion does not accept various issues that government does. Non-traditional relationships, alcohol consumption, or other products influencing people’s consciousness are not supported by religion. Government, on its way to find a compromise, inserts laws that create tolerance and respect for people of various views and beliefs. With mutual respect to people of different religions, mindsets, and perceptions of the outer world, a new level of peace and harmony can be found between Christians and the state.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is essential to say that Christian people can not only cooperate well with the government but also improve the modern laws by giving the reflection of their opinions. Sharing the principles of the Christian religion, especially in the protestant society of the United States of America, can lead to a new step of understanding, loving, caring, and saving moral principles. Theological anthropology claim that one of the most important settings a human being has is to become a good inhabitant in God’s household. With a will to become a decent and true man, there is no need to find a compromise or to forgive because harmony and faith in one’s heart can lead throughout all life.
Bibliography
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