2026-04-23
The separation of Church and State has been a theme throughout history, with Henry VIII reportedly (and maybe for all the wrong reasons) renouncing the supremacy of the Vatican and assuming power over the Church of England himself.
Thus undoing the separation, at least officially.
But the Church still crowns the head of the monarch whenever a new one is needed, and maintains separate ecclesiastical courts for processing those in religious offices granted by the Church, so there is some nominal degree of separation still. Although Church officials can still be brought before the criminal courts as requirements arise.
Followers of the Prophet Mohammed (work with me here, there are various groups within the Muslim religious communities of which I have limited understanding) view Mosque and State as aspiring to be a merged entity under Sharia Law, so separation is not fundamentally desirable.
Whilst republics may not be essentially religious, they may support religions in principle even if they don't formalise links. Swearings-in of new office-holders typically require a religious basis except in overtly communist countries.
Religion is seen as good for the guidance of the population in matters moral and spiritual, whilst government controls matters temporal and political. When these matters lead to conflicting imperatives, the Church is noticeably slow to criticise ...
... and whilst membership of a religion is optional for most, and many members treat it as a convenient formality rather than a practised authority, membership of a State is in practice an official determination which is in no way optional.
And the (western) State has spent at least the last century encroaching on matters that used to be considered moral and spiritual, such as family relationships and the conception and rearing of children, even to the extent of controlling what we watch, read, and indeed, think (even the food we eat, our health and medicine, the air we breath and our beliefs about our environment).
Has the State engineered the ultimate overreach, and become God?
(NB: this site does not support the notion of Biblical infallibility - the Devil has had far too much time to mess with the deliberations of the Council of Nicea and much else besides)
