The recent federal election in Canada, and the upcoming election in the USA have certainly stirred things up politically in both countries. And with the popularity of Facebook and other social media, anyone and everyone can get involved in the game. Of course the old question of the place of religion in politics soon rears it’s head.

Those who would like to exclude Christians from the political process so they can have it all their way, quickly begin to shout about “separation of church and state.” This idea comes from the First Amendment of the American constitution. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

As you can clearly see, the intent here was not to keep the church out of politics, but to keep politics out of the church! The intention was not to restrict the “free exercise” of religion – but exactly the opposite! The founders of America wanted to make sure that their government, and all future governments of the USA could staffed by members of the church and directed by the interests and values of the church without restriction from anyone.

The great triumph of democracy, however, is that everyone, regardless of theirs values or beliefs, has a right to participate in the government of our land. In fact, western style democracy is designed to be a free marketplace of ideologies, beliefs, and values. It allows those ideologies that draw the majority of adherents, to form the government and influence laws.

At the same time, those in a minority position are protected by law and allowed to follow their faith without interference . The only way that minorities can gain control of the government in a democracy is to resort to campaign of misinformation or intimidation tactics that attempt to bully others into supporting their cause.

I only make this point because it has become so commonplace in our political process for minority interests to gain traction through this very tactic – making such much noise that they sway the vote of people who should know better. They cleverly manipulate the media to join their chorus and, in some cases, manage to carry the day, forcing the unwilling majority to dance to their tune!

What’s my point? I used to have an old CB radio in my vehicle that featured a “Squelch” button. This was used to tune-out all the ‘noise’ on a particular frequency so that only a strong clear voice came through. We all need to remember to filter out all the noise on certain political issues and stay tuned in on the clear voice of Biblical truth!