Many Americans know about separation of church and state, and some know why separation is important. Few understand why those two sectors of society must be mutually supportive of each other, why they are always mentioned in the same breath. Church and state used to have superpowers.
The superpower of the church was the ability to recognize and teach the difference between good and evil. The superpower of the government was the ability to implement the good into law and to prosecute the evil.
Both those superpowers are gone today. The church has some real misgivings about the whole concept of evil. The government has forgotten how to govern the people. Today the church says the wealth gap, gambling and pornography are not so bad, and most crime is not a big deal. Congress and state legislatures look away when it is clear that important articles of the Constitution have dried up and withered to the ground.
Without our superpowers, what are we to do as a people? No wonder we fight over the smallest things and have no self-respect.
We need to rediscover the difference between good and evil. We need to dust off the good in our laws and get busy prosecuting evil.
The county board of supervisors and the Susanville City Council are no different when it comes to divisiveness that plaques most cities and counties. Community interest and leadership should be a concern for all of us. Two meetings I attended during the week of Feb. 13 were encouraging…
