The Lie of Secular Neutrality
How Secularism Became the State Religion
Christians in the modern West live under a constant demand to keep their faith out of politics. The claim is repeated until it feels unquestionable. Government must be secular. Public life must be neutral. Religion must stay private. Scripture must stay out of law.
What people call neutrality is simply a refusal to acknowledge Christ’s rule over the public square. It strikes at His crown rights and attempts to place another authority over the nations.
The modern appeal to “secular government” is not an argument for fairness, tolerance, or peaceful coexistence. It is the enforcement of a new orthodoxy. Secularism presents itself as an empty space, but it is a full religion that rejects revelation, refuses Christ, and demands allegiance to the self and the state.
The Bible does not permit this framework. It never has.
The Biblical Mandate for Christian Magistrates
Scripture tells rulers what they are and what they must be. The magistrate is not a free agent. He is not morally autonomous. He is a servant whose office is defined by God.
Second Samuel twenty three says, “He who rules over men must be righteous and must rule in the fear of God.” Exodus eighteen commands rulers to be able men who fear God, men who hate dishonest gain. Psalm two warns kings and judges that they must kiss the Son or perish. These passages do not describe optional ideals. They require rulers to confess and obey the true God.
Christ speaks to nations, not merely to individuals. In the Great Commission He declares, “All authority has been given to Me.” Nations must obey everything He commanded. Civil law is not exempt. There is no realm outside His jurisdiction.
Romans thirteen defines the magistrate as God’s servant. He is to punish evil and reward good. Evil and good are defined by Scripture.
A civil ruler who rejects God has already abandoned his calling. A government without the fear of God is already in revolt.
There is no neutrality in any of this.
The Reformed Tradition on Godly Magistrates
The idea of secular civil authority would have been unrecognizable to the Reformers.
Calvin taught that the magistrate was to uphold piety and justice as an act of obedience to God. Knox charged rulers to defend the true faith and overthrow idolatry. The Scottish reformers insisted that Christ’s lordship must shape public life.
The original Westminster Confession states that magistrates are responsible to maintain truth, protect the church, and suppress public blasphemy. Turretin and Gillespie taught that rulers must guard the moral order because God holds them accountable for the public square.
These were mainstream Reformed doctrine.
The modern objection to Christian magistracy arose from Enlightenment rationalism, not from Scripture or historic Protestantism.
The Reformed tradition never believed in secular neutrality. It believed in the crown rights of Christ.
America’s Founding Was Not Secular
The claim that the United States began as a secular nation is historically false.
At the founding:
Eleven of the thirteen states required officeholders to be Christians.
Several required explicit belief in the Old and New Testaments.
Some required affirmation of the Trinity.
Others required adherence to the Protestant religion.
These requirements were embedded in state constitutions. They were not accidents. They were expressions of a Christian people organizing their civil order under God.
This is the real American heritage.
The modern myth of a secular founding is a revision designed to dethrone Christ from public life.
What the First Amendment Actually Meant
The First Amendment was not written to create a secular government. It was written to prevent Congress from interfering with the Christian self governance of the states.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” meant that Congress could not impose a national church. It did not forbid states from maintaining Christian establishments. It did not ban religious tests for office. It did not prohibit open Christian government.
Institutional separation is not moral separation. The founders wanted separate institutions, not separate gods.
The First Amendment protected the Christian character of the states from federal interference. It was never written to empower secular ideology.
Secularism Is a False Religion
Secularism denies God, revelation, and divine authority. It claims that society can build its foundations without Scripture. It presents unbelief as the default posture of the public square.
Romans one teaches that this is impossible. There is no neutral space. Every society worships something. Every law reflects a moral vision. Every moral vision flows from a god.
The state cannot remain godless. If it rejects Christ, it will bow to another authority. Secularism crowns either the self or the state. In both cases the result is idolatry.
When people demand a secular government, they are insisting that a false god rule the nation instead of Christ.
The Moral Collapse of Secular Rule
A civil order that refuses to acknowledge God eventually loses its ability to define justice at all. The state begins to treat its preferences as moral law. What is wicked is excused, and what is good becomes suspicious. Those who should be protected are exposed, and those who should be restrained are empowered. Children are left undefended. The vulnerable become easy prey. The public square grows hostile to anyone who speaks truth with conviction.
Isaiah three gives this as a sign of judgment. Romans one explains the process. When a nation rejects the knowledge of God, He allows that nation to be governed by confusion and ruled by those who cannot see. Secular authority decays into blindness. It cannot sustain justice because it refuses the God who defines it.
A government that attempts to rule without God’s law will never become neutral. It has no ability to do so.
Christian Responsibility in Civil Office
Christians cannot retreat from the civil realm. Retreat is rebellion. Scripture commands rulers who fear God. That means Christians must encourage, support, and elect rulers who confess Christ. It also means Christians must be ready to take office themselves for the sake of righteousness.
Public authority is a ministry. The magistrate is a servant of God. Believers must treat the civil realm as a place of obedience, not as a place off limits to Scripture.
To claim that Christians should stay out of civil government is to deny what God commands.
Closing Exhortation
The vision of a secular government cannot be neutral. It is a direct denial of the rule of the King of kings. Scripture demands rulers who fear God. The Reformed tradition upheld the magistrate’s duty to serve Christ. America’s founding assumed the civil role of Christian truth.
The First Amendment was written to preserve Christian self governance by protecting the states from federal intrusion.
The church must reject the myth of neutrality. The state belongs to God. Law belongs to God. Nations belong to Christ. The people of God must call rulers to repentance and support leaders who will acknowledge the Lord.
Christ rules the nations. Civil authority must confess Him.