Article August 29, 1988 Issue

Religion and politics

The Christian Science Monitor

We know in our hearts that religion is fundamentally an individual, personal matter—not something that can be ultimately determined by a group of people, even a majority; not something at all man-made. It's of God. It comes from within, not without. And it takes a collective form only as those with similar convictions voluntarily unite to worship God.

That's why people instinctively suspect a church-dominated civil authority just as much as a state-determined church. The notion of imposed religion is simply not in harmony with the freedom, righteousness, and love that are at the heart of true worship. Imposition opposes the very advancement of mankind that both government and religion are supposed to promote. Of course, true government and true religion not only intend progress, they bring it. And they do so not through dominating each other but on the basis of their real, common source, which is God.

In Bible times God was perceived as both the one lawgiver, "governor among the nations," and the most high God, the most holy, the Holy One of Israel. The Psalmist hinted at this spiritual nature and coincidence of religion and government when he wrote, "The Holy One of Israel is our king."^{Ps. 89:18.}

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