“All worldly things are placed under the dominion and
power of the church.” Unum Sanctum (Giles of Rome, 1302)
It seems we haven’t come very far these past 710 years.
Once upon a time Popes crowned Emperors. Once upon a time, Bishops ruled territories,
collected taxes, made laws, executed civic justice in the name of the God whose
vestments they festooned. Once upon a
time the political served the behest of the clerical, the corruption of worldly
power infesting Prince and Pope equally, indistinguishably. Once upon a time both church and government
failed because neither knew their place.
But once upon a time (as I read history) a German monk
and his reforming colleagues broke the shackles of a world imprisoned by the theocracy
of the totalitarian church, separating the spiritual from the political, empowering
each to own individual, unique, distinct place and purpose. We consider this newly birthed understanding an
enlightenment, for it brought in the modern age, made possible modern democracy
and modern government and modern people.
Today we describe the Islamist tendencies and Jihadist
atrocities of our Muslim brethren as a barbarism that we long ago abandoned, a
knee-jerk rejection of a society that cannot be rejected, a less-than-quaint
antiquity of a desire to subdue people with religious tyranny that we have long
since learned is wrong and cannot function.
We think it wrong in their aspiration and practice.
So why should it be ok in ours?
The unmistakable subtext at work in the description of insurance
coverage for contraception as an assault on religion exudes the musty odor of a
longing for those good ‘ole medieval days when Pope spoke and Emperor did, when the church’s
word was the world’s law, binding, unquestioned good. Dominionism, even for those who deny the
nomenclature, is bubbling up in 2012 in a strange alignment of protestant and
catholic believers who decry the strangulation of personal liberty at the hand
of government but favor of the denial of freedom at the hand of the
church.
Forget for one moment the creation destroying and justice
annihilating implications of the church’s denial of contraception or the
theologically pregnant equation of fertility with justification. Overlook Catholic institutions that already
provide insurance plans to their employees, Catholic or otherwise, which
include contraception. Disregard that almost all Catholics in this country in
fact use contraception. Accept the right of the Roman Catholic or any other
church to dictate their religious belief to their followers in whatever way
they choose with whatever means are at their disposal.
Remember, instead, that the Catholic church, like the
Lutheran Church or the Evangelical Church or the Mormon church is in this time
and place a church, surely and merely a spiritual body residing in the midst of
a very non-spiritual kingdom, where we are all called by the God who created
both church and government to function as creatures of this world, who calls us
to submit ourselves to the law of this kingdom even as we live by the grace won
for us in Christ’s.
“For anyone who desires to reside in a city is bound to
know and observe the laws under whose protection he lives, no matter whether he
is a believer or, at heart, a scoundrel or knave.” (Martin Luther, Introduction to the Small
Catechism)
Asking the church to respect the laws of the land in
which it resides and works is not waging war on the church. Not letting the church dictate what laws it
will follow or what laws it will not is not waging war on religion. No, pretending to be victimized by the big
bad government is just a clever, but disingenuous way to hide the age-old
desire of the church to rule over it. No
one is asking believers, Catholic or otherwise, to practice contraception if
they find it against their faith. But it
is right, necessary and good to ask the institution of the church, a citizen of
the world, to know its place and let the government govern.
“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars,” said
Jesus.
Keep your faith. Practice it well. But let the church be the church. And let the government do its job.
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