Christian Leadership Quotes
Objectors to the Separation of Church and State Doctrine point to this quotation to justify giving preferences to Christians in majority Christian societies and presumably to prefer Muslims in Islamic nations. Most of the Founding Fathers and most of the general population were on the opposite side of this issue. Hence the First Amendment was one of the conditions for ratification. There has always been a large minority who believe that America was founded by people who were mostly Christian (Protestant) and there is nothing wrong with having America be a Christian nation and preferring Christians for key government positions.
This vision, known as "The Third Rome" saw not only Moscow as the seat of Christianity for the world, but saw the Czar as the Head of the Christian unified Church. Constantinople had fallen to the Muslims and Rome to the Barbarians and the Pope had virtually no power at the time. Particularly interesting is his vision of transforming a civil Emperor to the head of the Church—one who was strong and wealthy enough to end the schism of the Eastern and Western Churches and command all. In this sense, he was following the Muslim concept of a single secular and religious, all powerful, leader—like the Caliph.
John Ilyitch Sergieff. The power of the leadership of organizations, religious and secular, has long been in contention. There are those who advocate the strong, very powerful executive such as Russia under the Czars and the Roman Catholic Church and those who prefer a weaker leader with very limited power such as the United States and the Russian Orthodox Church.
