The merging of the missions of Church and State, and the
subsequent absorption of one into the other is, not surprisingly, something
that Alexis de Tocqueville identified as one of the chief dangers to democracy
in America — or anywhere else, for that matter. After describing the proper
function of organized religion with respect to the State, i.e., to teach moral behavior and act as a guide to the acquisition
and development of virtue, de Tocqueville presciently observed in Democracy in America,
“I am
aware that at certain times religion may strengthen this influence, which
originates in itself, by the artificial power of the laws and by the support of
those temporal institutions that direct society. Religions intimately united
with the governments of the earth have been known to exercise sovereign power
founded on terror and faith; but when a religion contracts an alliance of this
nature, I do not hesitate to affirm that it commits the same error as a man who
should sacrifice his future to his present welfare, and in obtaining a power to
which it has no claim, it risks that authority which is rightfully its own.
When a religion founds its empire only upon the desire of immortality that
lives in every human heart, it may aspire to universal dominion; but when it
connects itself with a government, it must adopt maxims which are applicable
only to certain nations. Thus, in forming an alliance with a political power,
religion augments its authority over a few and forfeits the hope of reigning
over all.
As long
as a religion rests only upon those sentiments which are the consolation of all
affliction, it may attract the affection of all mankind. But if it be mixed up
with the bitter passions of the world, it may be constrained to defend allies
whom its interests, and not the principle of love, have given to it, or to
repel as antagonists men who are still attached to it, however opposed they may
be to the powers with which it is allied. The Church cannot share the temporal
power of the State without being the object of a portion of that animosity
which the latter excites. (Alexis de Tocqueville, “Principal Causes Which
Render Religion Powerful in America,” Democracy
in America (1835, 1840), I.xvii. Cf. Centesimus
Annus, § 43.)
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