Religious freedom is one of the inalienable rights of men. Since God is superior to the state, civil government has no authority whatever to control men in their religious beliefs. Every man has an inherent right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The state should protect individuals and religious denominations in the free exercise of their religious rights. It is an abuse of the power of the state when it favors one religious denomination to the exclusion of others. All religious denominations should stand on an equality before the civil power, just as all individuals stand on an equality in their religious rights It follows that state churches are a clear violation o the religious rights of men.
It is equally clear that all attempts on the part of the church to control the state are wrong in principle and disastrous in results. As the state has no religious function, so also the church has no civil function. A free church in a free state is the ideal relation between church and state.
Romans 13:1-7; Matthew 22:2, Acts 5:29
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