The Church, State and Rothbard

Miscellaneous General
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Religion comes up on this forum from time to time and I notice some people have a certain level of resentment for religion and others (even atheists) seem to at least sympathize if not outright defend religious beliefs even if they are odds with certain religious motives and ideas. I will be the first to tell you that I am a Christian so I of course do believe in God, but I am not happy with the current state of the church today. Ever since the progressive movement got kicked off the church has been infiltrated by government statists and their agents. The church really wedded itself to the state during and after World War II with the “rise” of Communism since Communism (in the Soviet model) was associated with atheism and Godlessness. The state took full advantage of the church during this period and it has led to this blind state loving patriotism that now seeks to make war with every Muslim in the world today. To me the church in America today, with a few exceptions is a far cry from the church in early American history. Many people take pride in the thought of there being a separation of church and state, but the church and state have never been closer in my honest opinion as it is today. It’s not an official relationship, but the influence the two have on each other is so very obvious.

The church played an important role in early American history with ministers using the pulpits to spread the message with great enthusiasm that our rights are not granted to us by the state but are unalienable and given to us by God…or as atheist might say “Natural Rights”. I have always understood this thanks to how I was raised, but I am doing my own bit of research into this terrible path the church has taken over the last 100 plus years.

My question is did Rothbard, or others ever write on this unfortunate transition the church has made over the last 100 years or so? I can only imagine he has

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Unfortunitly the relationship between church and state is an EXTREMELY complex one…In their best moments organized religions have opposed the excessis of the state, but in their worst moments the church has used the state(and vice versa) to carry out horrid atrocities. Just as many corporations use the state for their own purposes today.

This was true even in early America. In the earlist New England colonies, Puritinism was the offical religion of everybody there, attendance of services was mandatory, Churches were supported with taxes, and anybody caught practicing a non-puritan religion could be banished from the colony(which is actually how Provenence, Rhode Island was founded, as a place for those banned from Puritan colonies to live). And the earliest public schools were founded for the express purpose of educating children in Purtian faith.

So yea, my point is, this isnt something that just started recently, its been going on as long as religion and states have existed. And to be honest I dont think its a problem with religion, per se. In a free society the state wouldnt have the power to enforce religious laws, organized churches would have to use strictly non-coersive means to get(and keep) members. And I think they would provide valuable services, not only allowing believers to worship together, but also social opportunities, charity, and possibly education or other such things…

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You may be interested in this lecture series: (sample from around 19min mark onward to see if this is what your looking for) He also touches on this subject in World War I as Fulfillment: Power and the Intellectuals

I also reccommend using google to search this site over the built in search functions.

http://www.google.com/search?q=church+rothbard+site:mises.org might provide some good starting points.