The Separation of Church and State
An Explanation From The Pulpit & A Call To Prayer For Ryan Walters
On Sunday morning (6-30-24) christians from Tulsa and the surrounding areas gathered as they do every week for community, worship, and the Word of God. Jackson Lahmeyer, is the lead pastor at Sheridan Church (Tulsa) as well as their remote location in OKC. Mr. Lahmeyer also ran for the United States Senate, against Senator James Lankford in 2022. Politics and faith often are found hand in hand in many churches throughout the state of Oklahoma. Many argue that government is in direct correlation with the Kingdom of God and often use The Seven Mountain Mandate as an explanation.
Lahmeyer held a special sermon this Independence Day weekend, before the July 4th holiday. He preached on the Christian history of our nation’s foundation and addressed the common misconception of, the separation of church and state, as expressed in a letter from Thomas Jefferson written to the Danbury Baptists Church. Pastors from these Danbury churches expressed their concerns to Jefferson which he addressed in a letter.
“The separation of church and state is not included in our Declaration of Independence, it’s not in our Constitution, it’s not in our Bill of Rights, in fact it’s not in any legal document”, Pastor Lahmeyer said to the congregation.
The phrase, separation of church and state, was in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to a group of pastors of the Danbury Baptist Church. These pastors were concerned about the nation and the new found federal government.
“They were concerned that they were going to be told, by the federal government, how they would practice their faith", Lahmeyer explained.
The thirteen colonies stemmed from the continent of Europe at this time in history. In this part of the world, there was state lead religion. The Sheridan Church pastor went on to give examples such as, if a person was born in Italy, they were born to the Catholic faith, if you were born in Germany, you were considered Lutheran, if you were born in England, you were seen Anglican.
So the question appeared to be, “if you were born in the colony of North Carolina, do you have to be a baptist? If you were born in New York, do you have to be a Catholic?”, Lahmeyer posed.
This idea that the religion, particularly the Christian religion, is not supposed to be taught or incorporated into government, is a fallacy, according to many. This topic is often debated in Oklahoma, especially when it comes to public, tax funded, education.
“It’s not freedom FROM religion, It’s freedom OF religion”
Jackson Lahmeyer went on to explain that Thomas Jefferson’s reply to the pastors, expressed that they would not have to worry about this issue, because in our new found nation, “we have built a wall of separation of church and state”, meaning the state will not dictate the affairs of the church. It’s not freedom FROM religion, It’s freedom OF religion”, said Lahmeyer.
Amidst the cheers of praise and excitement, Jackson went on to explain that the majority of our founding fathers were in fact Christian. He also explained that one of the most prominent figure heads in our history, Benjamin Franklin, was not a christian at the time, yet he still advocated for Christianity in a nation and even in education, due to the faith’s teaching of strong morals.
Our history in America was built on a faith in God.
John Adams, America’s second president said, “The destiny of America is to carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to all men, everywhere.”
Jackson went on to explain that even our founding universities were originally built to train pastors to spread the gospel throughout our new found country.
We Are A Stained Nation
Jackson Lahmeyer also expressed that in the founding of our nation, when the slave traders arrived to America, they were arrested because slavery was illegal in the thirteen colonies. However, he argues, it was the king of England that was adamant that there would be slavery in the colonies and undid this measure, thus allowing slavery into the history of our nation.
“…here’s the good news, we didn’t stay in that state of being (slavery). In fact our nation fought a civil war to end the horrors of slavery.”
Lahmeyer continued to explain that preachers in the colonies, like Charles Finney, were a huge part of rallying ministers to speak on abolishing slavery in America and were encouraged to push back on the King of England’s tryanical commands.
Ryan Walters Joins The Stage
After his sermon, Lahmeyer invited Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Education, Ryan Walters, on stage to share with the congregation about education and then issued a call to prayer for Oklahoma’s top education administrator. Christians in the audience stretched their hands toward Walters and lifted him and his family up in prayer in solidarity with all he has done for our state and the Kingdom of God, including making a recent statement of the board’s decision to put “a bible in every classroom” in Oklahoma.
Jackson Lahmeyer and Ryan Walters have been pillars of leadership in Oklahoma for the Kingdom of God. We are in a season and time where we absolutely must have bold leadership and elected officials with a strong moral compass to guide us through the turn around process of this nation.
You can watch Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer’s full sermon here.
More: Watch a exclusive Oklahoma Lion interview with Ryan Walters here
This is an editorial article based on a combination of opinions, research, and personal experiences.