The Role of Religion
in Public Policy Debate
Gaiy E. Farley
Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board
What a place to address the topic of the role of religion in public policy debate!
This state and this city were founded about 360 years ago because of a failed effort to
have just such a debate.
Roger Williams contended for the organic separation of the institutions of
government and religion. He argued that the state could only enforce the “second”
tablet of the Ten Commandments. With regard to the “first” tablet—the one
concerning the relationship between a person and deity—Williams declared that the
proper role of government was to create a climate in which each person could exercise
his/her conscience responsibly.
His logic ran like this: If a person is to be held accountable eternally for what he
believes about God and for how he worships deity, then he must be free to determine
his or her beliefs and practices. Consequently, government should not attempt to
determine what a person believes about God, even to the point of allowing a person
to deny the sovereignty of God over his/her life or to deny the very existence of God.
But the leaders of the Massachusetts colony rejected this position out of hand.
Williams had to flee Salem, buy land from the Indians and found the town OfProvidence
(Miller, p. 28-30).
Note: Williams always was a strong Calvinist who held very orthodox beliefs.
And, he was never slow to disagree publicly with those he saw as being in error. This
is illustrated by his debates with the Quakers in Rhode Island. He refused, however, to
call upon the state to silence and/or coerce the Quakers. He even defended their freedom
not only to believe differently but also to propagate their beliefs (Miller, p. 240-247).
Subsequently, in the early days of our nation, Thomas Jefferson and others
hardened this concept into a doctrine of separation of church and state, which often
has been interpreted to mean that churches should limit themselves to things spiritual
and the government, to things material.
Among the more recent voices to be raised contending that life cannot be so
neatly dichotomized is Stephen L. Carter in his best-seller The Culture of Disbelief.
Carter—writing from nearby New Haven—argues that religion must be recognized as
a full partner in public policy debates.
In my preparation for this address, I have assumed that the invitation from the
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