Religious Neutrality for the State

Should the state be religiously neutral? This is a topic disagreed upon quite often. The view I hold is that the state should be religiously neutral. Why, you ask? We as Christians need to guard ourselves from heresies, which come in all different shapes and sizes. By letting the state become associated with religion, we would be letting the state be associated with the Church as well and that is opening a door for all kinds of ideas to come through and possibly corrupt the Church. More descriptive reasons will gladly be explained in the following paragraphs.
The first of my reasons is that man is sinful and can become corrupt. There could be a strong Christian man appointed as head of state, but once his term is done, someone else needs to be elected or appointed. It would be nice if the next man was a Christian as well, but that might not happen, and it might turn out a Muslim is appointed. He then might change what is taught in the schools, or change laws to the disadvantage of churches. Some Christians have their children in public schools, and those children would then be taught heresies and they would have to shield themselves from those teachings. The public school systems in fact already have some of these teachings going on.
To add to the above, come Christians say that there should be praying in schools. This might look like a good idea on the surface, but once you dig in, it truly is not. For example, the teacher of a class could be an atheist, and when it comes time every day to say a “prayer”, the “prayer” might really just be a conversation with your soul or mind.
And also if man is sinful, he can be led astray. You might have someone appointed as head of state and when he is appointed, he claims to be a Christian. But we all know that fame and wealth have potential to corrupt men, and the head of state might end up leading everybody astray. This would not be good for the Church either.
In his Defense*, Justin gives an interesting example of a person expressing a reason for the state to be religiously neutral. In this example, Lucius is protesting the order of execution given by a man named Urbicius, for another Christian by the name of Ptolemy. This is what he said, “Why punish this man, who is not an adulterer, fornicator, murderer, thief, robber, or offender in any way, but merely confesses the name Christian?” In a more understandable sense, Lucius is saying that it is not any of Urbicius’ business that this man claims to be a Christian, and that Urbicius should only be concerned with crimes such as murder, thievery, fornication, and so forth. One of the reasons Lucius might think this is to protect Christians from persecution if a sinful leader (such as Urbicius) comes into power. This proves my point earlier that there is almost always the possibility that a sinful leader will come into power.
Though state and religion should not be associated, it doesn’t mean that they are not called to rule justly. Deuteronomy 16:18 says this, “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” (ESV) This verse is obviously calling rulers to judge with righteousness. It also does not mean that we as Christians should not submit to the authority placed over us. Romans 13:1-2 says this, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” This clearly states that we should submit to the government, and do what they say, unless of course they want us to renounce our faith.
To wrap things up, we can say these few things. Man is sinful and can become corrupt, and that can lead to heretical teaching in schools, corrupt leaders and Christian persecution. So then why should the state be in charge of religious duties as well? If there are Christian rulers, they should certainly encourage Christianity and Godly living, but the state should not interfere with religious activities. I will close with two verses, Psalms 2:10, “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.”, and Psalms 94:20, “Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?” (ESV)