The Gospel tells us that the seemingly innocent question about paying taxes posed in the Gospel by the Sadducees was contrived to entrap Jesus. How so? If the Lord said that taxes should be paid to Caesar, then Jesus would be despised by the Jews, who’d see him as a traitor to his race. The last thing that the Jews wanted to do was give their wages to a foreign occupying power: Rome. Moreover, tax-collectors were not Roman, but Jews. Consequently, tax-collectors were hated because they were seen as traitors to their race, who’d extort as much as they could from the poor to make a profit. On the other hand, if Jesus said that taxes should NOT be paid, then the Romans would look to him as a rabble-rouser. How dare he tell the people not to give taxes to Rome? Any answer Jesus gave then seemed to lead to his demise. Jesus’ answer, however, shows that love of God isn’t mutually exclusive from being a loyal citizen: “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Loving God and loving one’s country then can be in harmony. We can be religious people who are also loyal citizens. The Founding Fathers of our nation were religious men as we read in the Declaration of Independence or as John Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice wrote to Jedidiah Morse in 1797, “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.”
How then did we get to a point where religious beliefs should be mainly a private affair? The modern interpretation of the notion of Separation Between Church and State is not what the Founding Fathers understood it to be. Rather, the Framers of the Constitution held that no religion should be established as the official religion for any state. For instance, the Episcopal Church should not be recognized as the official religion for the state of Virginia. The Founding Fathers never intended that religious expression should not be expressed publicly. After all, they were deeply religious men.
What then are the consequences of misinterpreting the notion of the Separation Between Church and State? God is always present to us, but when we close ourselves to his presence because of a mistaken understanding of how our nation should relate to him then we reap the consequences of our foolishness. We can see this in what’s happened to our public schools and neighborhoods, for instance. Schools and neighborhoods should be havens, but driving God away from these public places has only made room for the devil to replace God's presence with violence and crime in many areas of our nation.
The only way out of the quagmire that we find ourselves is to once again embrace the Christian roots that our nation was founded. Therefore, the words of Irving Berlin’s memorable composition, God Bless America, should especially ring out in our hearts today, but also every day: “God bless America, land that I love Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.” Our human frailty will often allow us to falter, but through God’s help may the light from above always shine in our hearts. It’s the light that comes divine love, which has made our nation great and will continue to do so if we allow God to be the beacon that guides our nation in all her endeavors.
