For nearly half a century, I've watched as a common (and commonly-believed) lie, has handicapped the churches of Canada from supporting the political party that should be their natural home, the CHP. This lie is accompanied by a not-so-subtle form of political abuse.

The lie is the shibboleth that, "You shouldn't mix religion and politics."

The political abuse is the "golden shackle" of tax relief: governments threaten to rescind the church's right to issue tax receipts for donations, if the church has the temerity to exercise its proper authority to guide its members.

Both are lies. Both are wrong.

If you're a Roman Catholic or an Eastern Orthodox, the doctrine of separation of church and state is called "Subsidiarity." If you're a Protestant, it's called "Sphere Sovereignty." I'll use the Protestant doctrine, and the illustrious career of Abraham Kuyper to illustrate why the doctrine is wrong.

The phrase "separation of church and state" was coined by Thomas Jefferson in a personal letter he wrote, as President of the United States, to a church in Danbury, Connecticut. What did Jefferson mean by the phrase "a wall of separation between church and state"? He meant that the state has no right to tell the church what it is allowed to teach. But he did NOT mean that Christians cannot express themselves politically, or that churches cannot comment on politics.

Such an interpretation is categorically absurd. If your faith doesn't influence everything you think, say and do, how 'real' is it?

The doctrines of subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty start by identifying four spheres of governance: personal, family, church and civil. In each, the appropriate responsible officials are held accountable for teaching correct doctrine.

Individual sovereignty ultimate means that each and every one of us is personally responsible for what we believe. The Hebrew word for "believe" is emunah, or "faith". The English word "believe" comes from Anglo-Saxon by lieve: what you "live by" tells God and the world what you really believe. If you don't understand that abortion is the murder of a human baby, you'll be willing to accept the lie that a woman has a 'right' to hire a doctor to kill an inconvenient child.

Family sovereignty means that there is a chain of responsibility for raising children with an understanding of biblical standards of right and wrong. Church sovereignty means that the hierarchy of the church-made up of Pastor, Bishops, etc.-has the authority to define correct doctrine.

Civic sovereignty means that the civil government is responsible before God for exercising its authority according to the standards in the Book of Romans, Chapter 13: the civil governor is God's servant for you, to reward good and punish evil.

But there is only one Law-giver, God; and the civil government is responsible for administering His Law, which is found in the Pentateuch.

But the civil government cannot tell the church what it may teach. There are exceptions: some imams, for example, praying in Arabic (and therefore unknown to the government) regularly ask Allah-their god-figure, some call the moon-god-to kill all Jews. That is incitement to violence, and it is unacceptable. But because of fear of Islamic terrorists, no government has been willing to enforce His Majesty's peace. Too bad!

Abraham Kuyper, a theologian, teacher and newspaper publisher, became Prime Minister of Holland at the beginning of the 20^th century-and was an effective and highly regarded political leader. He asserted sphere sovereignty, and was respected for it.

But in the rest of Western civilization during the 20^th century, governments and courts have tried to impose a Secularist regime of silence on churches, shutting them into their cloisters. It was not always so! During the American Revolution, the "black-robed brigade"-the pastors of churches-was a powerful influence that allowed a mere 4 percent of the colonists to confront the world's most powerful army-and win.

It's time for the church in Canada and the USA to re-assert the doctrine of Sphere Sovereignty, shake off the golden shackles, and resume their place as the conscience of the nation.

It remains true that there is only one federal political party that is truly pro-Life, pro-Family and pro-Freedom: the CHP.

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