Bernard Lewis Quotes

But separation of church and state was never meant to separate God and government.

It is manifest therefore that they who have sovereign power, are immediate rulers of the church under Christ, and all others but subordinate to them. If that were not, but kings should command one thing upon pain of death, and priests another upon pain of damnation, it would be impossible that peace and religion should stand together.

The United States furnishes the first example in history of a government deliberately depriving itself of all legislative control of religion.

History makes the point time and time again No greater mischief can be created than to merge the power of religion with the power of government.

Government seems to me to be a part of religion itself - a thing sacred in its institutions and ends.

I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church.

The government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion.

Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.

When religion controls government, political liberty dies; and when government controls religion, religious liberty perishes.

T]he prevailing opinion in Europe, England not excepted, has been that religion could not be preserved without the support of government nor government be supported without an established religion that there must be at least an alliance of some sort between them. It remained for North America to bring the great and interesting subject to a fair, and finally a decisive test

God has appointed two kinds of government in the world, which are distinct in their nature, and ought never to be confounded together; one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government.

Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government?

the separation of church and state grew out of a desire, not so much to protect government from religion, but to protect religion from government.

History showed that many people had lost their respect for any religion that had relied upon the support of government to spread its faith.

… in this state [a theocracy] the highest and only authority belonged to God, to whose worship all other things were made subservient.

The President is the Theologian in Chief.

Saudi Arabia is defined and represented by its Islamic stature.

I don't want to separate religion and state, I want to settle it.

Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government.

You're telling me that the separation of church and state is found in the First Amendment?

By our form of government, the Christian religion is the established religion... .

Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God.

The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of the law for the virtues of men.

One of the primary questions in a state-church arrangement is, 'which controls which?' . . . In Norway, for example, the liberal labor government has regularly angered Church officials by making controversial ministerial appointments against the wishes of the clergy. . . . These and other actions have strained the church-state relationship almost to the breaking point. As a result, some of the bishops have advocated disestablishment.

I think those governments who resent religion, they're afraid of religion because religion may be in their eyes, in their views be seen as a counter government or a parallel government.