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State v. Church compared to Husband v. Wife -- Reciprocal Learning from the Ideal
Relationship
announcement to rs_public
V1N14 State v. Church compared to
Husband v. Wife -- Reciprocal Learning from the Ideal Relationship
Remnant Saints Inter-Continental Congress
NEWSLETTER
Volume 1 Number 14
March 1, 2002 6:00 pm MST
To: Full RSICC Membership and Friends
We can draw a great deal of wisdom regarding the proper role of government and
its relationship to the church if we compare it to the relationship between a husband and a wife.
The husband is the protector. The wife is the nurturer. They have separate roles, but the ideal is
for them to work harmoniously together for the benefit of the entire family. The children could be
considered analogous to lay citizens.
In some (too many) relationships, the man is controlling, acting as a tyrant. In others, the woman
is. In some cases, the husband and wife are well balanced and their relationship thrives and the
children are happy.
What are the key ingredients for the ideal man-wife-child relationship, and what lessons can be
applied to the ideal church-state-citizen relationship?
In some (most) nations and in some (most) times of history, the government acts as tyrant. In others
(more rare, but it still happens), the church serves as the overlording tyrant of society. The ideal
would be for there to be a balance, with a symbiotic relationship, and with a happy citizenry.
What is it that the woman does, that helps keep the husband-would-be-tyrant from becoming such? Some
of it is the choice of the husband, some of it is the choice of the woman. But there are principles
of the ideal relationship. What lessons can we draw from this regarding the proper relationship
between church and state?
When the children are young, the parents play a different role for them than when they grow older
and begin to learn independence, to go out on their own. The citizens of some nations are not as
"grown up" in their understanding of responsibility, and hence need more of a guiding hand
from the paternalistic state or the maternalistic church. Even though each nation and each church
contains a wide gamut of immature to mature individuals within it, there does seem to be a general
level of characteristics or personality that marks the body as a whole as distinct from another body
elsewhere. The Muslim countries and religion are very different from the Western world, and both of
these are very different from the Eastern countries and religions. Some nations are more prepared
for responsible freedom.
The ideal is for the parents (husband and wife) to help the children (citizens) grow up into
responsible adults. The ultimate society needs no head (church-state), for all citizens are both
responsible and virtuous. That doesn't mean there would be no church-state in the ultimate society;
only that its role would be very different. In this case, the relationship between the church-state
and the citizens would resemble more of that of parents with their matured children. They are more
friends and colleagues than parent-child. In my opinion, we as a society not too far away from
achieving that ideal. We are well along in our development. We have outgrown the stage of childhood
in which the parents are required to exert a great deal of control because we don't know any better.
Nevertheless, while society as a whole will soon be ready for a more advanced level of
church-state-citizen relationship than they now experience, they are not ready for a fully matured
level. Nevertheless, there could be pockets of communities on the brink of such a level. These, I
would posit, will be heaven on earth, as the ideal balance is struck. But even the less advanced
level will be a large improvement on where the world is at today. There is a transformation coming
to the planet.
As I compose this write-up and contemplate the many comparisons, I realize that this question and
its answers could be the subject of a book or of a doctoral thesis, if not many.
It would be fun to develop this idea together.
We shouldn't make this the focus of RSICC, but it certainly can make for an interesting side
conversation that we bring up from time to time.
RSICC Newsletter Index
Page last updated March 02, 2002
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