The Fence We Built

Appreciating American devotion to God and State

07/04/2025

Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away.

I have often wondered if the real American Revolutionary War was not the one fought at Yorktown, Boston, and signed at the Treaty of Paris in 1783, but rather the one fought in Philadelphia among delegates from the 13 Colonies and added to the U.S. Constitution as the Bill of Rights or the first 10 Amendments 7 years later in 1791.

And as you know, the First Amendment protects personal freedoms, and the first freedom our founding fathers listed was the “freedom of religion.” In other words, the real American Revolution was a religious one, and henceforth, we Americans would be free to practice any religion of our choosing, or to practice none at all.

I was having dinner at a family’s home a couple of weeks ago and we were discussing the great diversity of churches in Fort Smith. Have you noticed this religious plurality? There are some very beautiful Buddhist temples decorated with bright yellow and red colors. In some neighborhoods, you can hear the Muslim call to prayer ringing out from mosques here and there.

We are blessed to have a Jewish synagogue on North 47th Street with 22 families who worship there (I checked their website). And we have countless Christian denominations scattered all over town, with tall steeples pointing to heaven, and with the most prominent one towering at the head of Garrison Avenue, of course!

But before this American religious revolution, you never found such diversity of devotions in a country. Rather, you had the principle of “cuius regio, euis religio” meaning “whose realm, his religion.” Or as we sometimes joke, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do!” and that included “doing religion” as the Romans do. And if you did not do as the Romans did, what happened? You were persecuted, tortured, or thrown to the lions.

But for the first time in history, thanks to this remarkable American religious revolution, we created a country where there was no “state sponsored religion.” No “religio” of the “regio”, no religion of the realm. Each citizen was absolutely free to practice any religion, or to practice no religion at all.

This fine line of faith – to practice or not to practice – was drawn by Thomas Jefferson when he argued for “a wall of separation between church and state.” That is, “good fences make good neighbors," and that fence or wall of separation meant that church and state would not encroach into each other’s yards.

Our religious revolution is also an ingenious way to interpret Jesus’ words in the gospel today. Our Lord invites us to walk that “fine line of faith” when he teaches: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” What better way to put Jesus’ preaching into practice than what we find in the First Amendment?

Let me quote the beginning: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Or put simply: “Good constitutional fences make good neighbors of church and state.” Or as our Lord said it: “Caesar and God both receive the devotion they deserve,” not more and not less.

My family emigrated to the United States in 1976, which by the way, was the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. And we are so blessed to live in this amazing country. Among the many freedoms that all Americans enjoy, chief is our freedom for religion, or contrarily, freedom from religion.

In other words, the United States is not like communist countries (think of Russia and China) where the state tells the church what to do. And we are unlike religious monarchies (think of Iran) where the church tells the state what to do. Rather, we fought the American revolution in great part so that we “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.” And both Church and State get along great because of a fence we built back in 1791.

Praised be Jesus Christ!