We know that King Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, and New England’s patriarch of the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather, all preferred a government-sponsored religion, for various reasons. But there is no evidence that Jesus did. In fact, he said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s,” (Mark 12:17) indicating a natural separation.

ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS, VIRGINIA’S OWN JAMES MADISON, WROTE, “AN ALLIANCE OR COALITION BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION CANNOT BE TOO CAREFULLY GUARDED AGAINST…... “WE ARE TEACHING THE WORLD THE GREAT TRUTH THAT GOVERNMENTS DO BETTER WITHOUT KINGS & NOBLES THAN WITH THEM. THE MERIT WILL BE DOUBLED BY THE OTHER LESSON THAT RELIGION FLOURISHES IN GREATER PURITY, WITHOUT [RATHER] THAN WITH THE AID OF GOV.” [JAMES MADISON, LETTER TO EDWARD LIVINGSTON, JULY 10, 1822].
IF WE ARE TO “BE IN THE WORLD AND NOT OF IT,” THEN WE MIGHT WANT TO CARE A LITTLE LESS ABOUT THE LITTLE PLOT OF DIRT ON LOUDOUN’S GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. 

“Here we are—all of us… bound together in a common destiny, living our lives between the briefness of the daylight and the dark.  Kindred in this, each lighted by the same precarious flickering flame of life, how does it happen that we are not kindred in all things else?  How strange and foolish are these walls of separation that divide us!...When I think of these things I wonder.  I wonder at the patience of God.  While the dream still lives in our hearts, God waits, While the vision shines in our eyes, God hopes.  How long shall we keep God waiting?”  (Common Destiny, by Rev. A. Powell Davies)

Merry Christmas.
HAPPY HANUKKAH.
WONDROUS SOLSTICE.
JOYOUS KWANZAA.
“...ON EARTH, PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN.:  (LUKE 2:14)

S. Ann Robinson

Leesburg