O Lord, My God and separation of church and state

It's as simple as breathing and as difficult as explaining just how the lungs came to be.

Thomas Jefferson, one of the crafters of the U.S. Constitution wrote a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association -- referencing the First Amendment to the United States Constitution -- that talked about a wall of separation between church and state. He wrote, "Believing with you that religion is matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that the act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

That's Jefferson describing to the Baptists that the United States Bill of Rights prevents the establishment of a national Church, and that they do not have to fear government interference in their manner of worship.

And all hell broke loose years later. The U.S. Supreme Court first quoted that phrase of Jefferson's in 1878. But the Court really got involved in 1947 when it incorporated what is known as the establishment clause.

In 1958, Steven Engel, a Jewish New Yorker, came together with other parents to sue New York State over state-endorsed prayer that was being recited in schools. The Supreme Court inevitably sided with Engel and the decision to remove prayer (state-endorsed prayer) from public schools was issued on June 25, 1962.

That brings us to last week in Rankin County, Miss., a county I used to live in eons ago.

Two years ago, a student in that school system filed suit because prayers were being invoked at public settings. She won the lawsuit and the school system had to pay $10,000. 

On Friday night, Brandon High School cancelled their band's halftime show shortly before a home football game. They cited a federal court order delivered by a judge and claimed that because the halftime show featured a "Christian hymn," they could not perform in fear of another $10,000 fine. 

The "Christian hymn" was How Great Thou Art, by the way.

One can argue forever and a day about the validity of the lawsuit, about the validity of the court's decision more than a half-century ago, but one can't argue that what happened next isn't wonderful if one believes in a risen Lord.

A lone man stood and began to sing in a rather deep and beautiful voice, "My Lord, My God, when I in awesome wonder..."

Soon, other voices began to ring out. Soon most of those in attendance were singing. A stadium filled with persons singing praise to a Lord who does not necessarily believe in this wall of separation.

Look, the freedoms we have come with a price. One of the prices we pay for freedom of speech and other freedoms found in the Bill of Rights is the notion that we will not have a national religion. With that notion comes this idea that we will not impose religion on those who do not want religion.

God doesn't do that either.

But if one goes all the way back to Jefferson, the idea as I read it was to keep the state from imposing a religion, but he also wrote that the legislature should also not "prohibit the free exercise thereof."

So, to please the vast minority (intentionally written), we have prohibited much.

But there is nothing in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights about singing together in a football stadium as long as it is not led from the press box (which makes no sense but is true). There is nothing there that prohibits someone bringing their own Karaoke machine and praying while the crowd stands in silence. There is nothing that prohibits children praying in school, just not led by teachers or from the P.A. system.

Even the student who originally sued said this about last Friday night, "Both the right to free speech and freedom of religion (both free exercise and establishment) were protected (Friday), and that's a beautiful thing."

Of course, the 19-year-old college student misses the point entirely. The beautiful thing was someone taking a moment to sing about the awesome wonder that is our Lord, our God. I would hope that someday the Holy Spirit turns her from being the one who sued to the one who turned to the one who loves her most dearly.

Till then, "When Christ shall come..."