The entire human race up to the modern period had it right; the modern world has it wrong. Until materialism (that is, the belief that matter is the only reality) gained a predominant hold in Athenian minds, all races, nations, and peoples understood that the State was a religious institution and that the civil government established the tenets and beliefs of a particular religion.
The twentieth centuries adoption of the philosophy of materialism, whether of the militantly aggressive kind (communism) or of the effete liberal kind (western democracy) has resulted in the peculiar notion of the State being non-religious, or secular in nature. The movement from the implicit atheism of the Enlightenment to the explicit atheism of the West is well documented and easily understood. What is not so widely understood is that the modern penchant to insist that the State be secular—that is, that the State not be allowed to have any connection with any particular religion, but be neutral towards all—is itself a distinctly and deeply religious position and a consistent attempt to establish the religion of materialism.
Firstly, let us rehearse the major dogmas and doctrines of materialism. This belief system asserts that there is no reality or existence beyond physical matter. The gods, therefore, by definition do not exist, for they are not material; they cannot be scrutinised in a scientific laboratory (which to the materialist constitutes more than adequate proof that the gods are imaginary). The belief that many people have in a deity is an outcome of the peculiar functioning of their physical bodies, such as the conditioning of their neurons. However, the belief itself is superstitious only. What they believe no more exists than Santa Claus.
The all-determiner of existence is the material (natural) order. Man, insofar as he can use his reason to investigate and manipulate the processes of the material world, to that extent he is master over matter. To all intents and practical purposes, then, the only ultimate power in the universe is man himself--unless and until a superior alien species turns up. Meanwhile, man is cock of the hill.
Men become truly free and self-actualised when they shed all the superstitious beliefs in deities, Santa Claus, and existence after death. As they do this and interact with the universe as it truly is—that is, a cluster of atoms and resultant matter—then they know the truth and are, thereby, set free.
All human culture and institutions, including schools, governments, law-courts, judgments, parliaments, families become truly enlightened when they are able to discard religious superstitions and live and act in the real world, which is the world of matter only. The enlightened world, therefore, is the secular world.
The philosophy of materialism and the religious dogma that flows out of it has become the dominant religion of Athenian governments, schools, universities, media, and of western culture in general. This reality alone makes the modern world acutely peculiar when judged against the backdrop of the history of mankind upon the earth to date. Naturally, modern man sees this peculiarity as a superior and enlightened position. Historical humanity, however, would view it as idiotic, naive and stupid in the extreme. We suspect subsequent generations will look back and likewise shake their heads in disbelief at the naiveté and stupidity of twentieth century western civilisation.
Materialism relentlessly drives society into increasingly secular activity and beliefs. Materialism insists that the State must be secular and it must be the ultimate authority in all human society. Since there is only matter, and since Man can rule over matter, Man is to all intents and purposes the functioning deity. There is no higher law than Man. Corporate Man, the State is the highest expression of human power and authority and law. Therefore, the State is the functioning deity.
But, as a true deity, the secular State will have no other gods in its presence. Therefore, the secular state must not mention or name any other god or any other religion. There must be an absolute wall of separation between the State and religion—which is to say, any other religion.
Consider the following constitutional precepts:
1. The Church is separate from the State.
2. It is prohibited to enact on the territory of the Republic local laws or regulations which would put any restraint upon, or limit freedom of conscience or establish any advantges or privileges on the grounds of the religion of citizens.
3. Each citizen may confess any religion or no religion at all. Loss of any rights as the result of the confession of a religion or the absence of a religion shall be revoked. The mention in official papers of the religion of a citizen is not allowed.
4. The actions of the government of other organizations of public law may not be accompanied by religious rites or ceremonies.
5. The free performance of religious rites shall be granted so long as it does not disturb the public order and infringe upon the the rights of the citizens of the . . . Republic. In such cases, the local agencies are entitled to take the necessary measures to secure public order and safety.
6. No person may evade citizen's duties on the grounds of his religion.
7. Religious oaths shall be abolished. In cases where it is necessary only a solemn vow may be given.
8. The acts of civil status shall be kept solely by civil agencies.
9. The school shall be separate from the Church. The teaching of religion is prohibited in all state, municipal or private educational institutions where a general education is given. Citizens may give and receive religious instruction privately.
10. All ecclesiastical and religious associations are subject to regulations pertaining to private societies and unions, and shall not enjoy any advantages or receive any subsidies either from the State or from local self-governing institutions.
We have here a classic expression of the secular state which in turn is a consistent reflection of the belief of materialism. The question is, What constitution is being quoted? Is it a sort of model constitution found in the Humanist Manifesto? Is it taken from the US Bill of Rights? Is it the working brief of the American Civil Liberties Union? Or, is it from the NZ Human Right Commission?
The thinking and the concepts are familiar to us all. This is indeed the world of modern Unbelief as we have come to know it. So, what is the provenance of this stirring and very modern declaration of the separation of Church and State?
It is dated 23rd January, 1918 and is a decree promulgated by Vladimir Illyich Lenin on behalf of the new Soviet regime.
At this point, we expect you, the reader, will have one of two reactions. Some of you will react with surprise that the Soviet Union was so enlightened and advanced and that maybe it was not as bad a society or government as you have been lead to believe. Others will react with sadness and maybe anger that the Soviet Union did not live up to, nor keep, the declarations contained in this decree. The blood of Jerusalem's martyrs in that place still cry out to the Lord for vengeance.
To the first reaction, we say that the Soviet Union was neither enlightened nor advanced, but brutish and stupid—as all materialism is. The fact that we, however, find the statements so familiar tells us volumes about the brutishness of our own Athenian societies and nations and how implicitly sovietesque they have become, rather than the relative enlightenment of the Soviets.
To the second reaction, we reply that the Soviet establishment of the State as secular secular and that the Church must be separated off from civil society, inevitably led to the active and aggressive persecution of the Christian Church and of Christians. As it will in the West! Soviet tyranny was not an aberration, but an necessary extension of this establishment of the secular faith. If the state bans religious faith from the public sphere and restricts it to a private sphere only (one's conscience or heart) the state will end up persecuting any who evangelise others, or who teach their religion, or instruct their own children in their faith. They will do so while they subscribe the the statements made above. This is precisely what happened in the Soviet Union, particularly under Stalin under the Five Year Plan, than later under Krushchev, who presided over a period of intense and bitter persecution of Christians and Churches.
Materialism's doctrine of the secular state is a religious dogma. It draws upon a peculiar view of origins, of reality, of man and his place in the cosmos, of power, of truth, of ultimate loyalties and devotion, of ethics, of right and wrong, and of justice, judgment and righteousness. The secular state of modern materialism is an intensely religious institution, with religious loyalties and religious dogmas. It seeks to impose its religion upon people by force and compulsion. It is, in a word, an establishment of religion.
People of earlier ages were smarter than the current crop. They knew that the State was inevitably religious: they were smart enough to elevate the debate to one over which religion it was to be.
Jerusalem has, likewise, always known that the State is an institution and establishment of religion. The only question is whether it will be acknowledged to be a servant of the one true Living God, or of an idol. Jerusalem has always known that the modern secular state is just one more front for human self-worship.
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