Are there Christians who admire secularism and "separation of church and state"?

Having grown up in a country where state and church were one, its something that touches a nerve. The church ran this country for a long time. If you disagreed with a priest, you're life was over. Every school was run by the church, every child taught catechism, which you dared not question it or you were beaten. The Magdalene Sisters, the Christian Brothers were for many institutions of torture. Birth control was illegal as was homosexuality. The church was the state. It is only now we are starting to emerge from under the claws of the church but we still have a long way to go. It can still be very difficult to get a place in a school if your child is not baptized, even if the parents have no belief system or haven't seen the inside of a church since they were kids.The church still believes it can have a say in our laws and tries to influence politicians. It is never a good idea to mix religion and law. If someone wants to have their beliefs then let them but it doesn't mean that just because something goes against church law it should be illegal for all citizens.

Yes in theory. I don't like this whole "We can't even talk about good," concept in America. Like where I did my student teaching, teachers were discouraged to say God bless you...to me that's over the top. I really wish we could embrace religion (all religions) into our society, especially our education system. The same way kids learn about Native Americans, I wish they could learn about Christianity, Buddism, Islam, ect...from a cultural standpoint, not a theology standpoint.

With that said, I don't think any religion should have a place in government but it shouldn't be something that people actively try not to discuss.

Absolutely. If there was none, all of the pig headed Christians, my mother included, would abolish the death penalty, and make homosexuality and abortion illegal. Most Religious people are extremely closed minded. They all promote "loving thy brother", but forget to mention that it only applies if thy brother is also a follower of your religion. When I think of churches ruling with the government, the crusades and the Salem witch trials come to mind. A world run by religion is a world in chaos.

I believe that the separation of church and state should go both ways. As long as the state stays out of religion, religion will stay out of the state. Unfortunately there is very much overstep on either side.

I believe that a true Christian would be in the world and not of it.

No Christian can truly mix with the world's system.

So no.. I don't agree with the church mixing with the government, etc, etc.

Neither do I agree with them pushing their views on people.

state = a religion.

Upset would be an understatement.

A lot of Christians I know do -- some for the reasons that you mention (they might not always be the majority), some because they are tolerant and understand the world is complex. The more radical someone is, the louder they are. That goes for just about any belief or movement.

I'm a practicing Catholic and I don't like it when religion and law are intertwined. eg. I'm against gay MARRIAGE because of my beliefs, however, I don't think it would be a bad thing to have same-sex couples have some sort of civil ceremony (not marriage) which would give them the same rights as a married male/female couple.

Question: Humphreys, Austin, Baumgardner, and Snelling examined zircons and found that the helium diffusion rates didn't line up with billions of years old. The zircons had a ton more lead and helium in them than they should have--pointing to more like 6,000 years old, not billions.

Evolution relies on earth being billions of years old--but there is ample evidence that the earth is fairly young, still in the thousands.

Which means that while you might not accept is as complete proof--evolutionists who ignore such proofs are taking their beliefs on faith. Evolution is hardly a proven fact.

I can already tell by the responses that there are no true secularist Christians out there. The girl that thinks gays should get "civil unions" and not marriage is lying to herself. Marriage isn't a religious union. It's a state union. Marriage is NOT holy matrimony. The two are not the same. Gays should be able to marry as they please and call it MARRIAGE.

Christians also grossly misinterpret the term "separation of church and state". The separation protects all beliefs, religious or otherwise, equally. However, separation is not exemption. Breaking the law under the guise of religious freedom is still illegal. Your religion is still required to operate within the bounds of the law. Christians don't understand that, and it's no surprise given that the law panders to them. For example, Churches are non-taxable. Why? Every other form of business or organization is taxable. Why are churches so special? We give them exemptions from the law, so they try to take more and more. If you give a mouse a cookie...

All in all, there are no secularist Christians. It's not in their nature and I doubt it ever will be.

You'd have to be more specific.

Catholics, for instance, would want to ban birth control.

Protestants--lists of what Protestant Christianity bans includes rape, kidnapping, burglary, murder, dishonoring your parents, adultery, bearing false witnesses against people...

How much of that is your *rights* as an American that the 'religious nutjobs' want to take away?

What's that? Religious people are pushy about their religion and their values and beliefs onto others? Shock and awe...

seriously, it's one of the main reasons our country has gone to sh*t. Christians (yes, Christians) that have pushed crap legislation due to their bs morals (that don't even necessarily line up with the Bible) that screw us over. See Prohibition for a chief example. But if you want something more recent? See the bible thumping f***tards trying to push the teaching of Bible and Christianity in public schools. I don't care if it's a private school, but PUBLIC SCHOOLS should not have anything to teach about religion. The most I could see would be an objective look at ALL religions, but even then, don't care, let that happen in college so the person can make their own informed decision.

I don't really have any reason to 'admire' secularism. But the same people complaining that religion is being pushed on their kids are the same people who end up going to religious schools pushing for them to enforce secularism to not offend those who aren't religious... this I do not respect but I do respect the ones who keep their secularism to themselves. I live in a country where secularists are the majority and atheists penalize, make fun of and patronize christians whereas they will give religions that are violent that they are too scared to criticise extra priveledges (i.e Islam)

P.s Please refrain from quoting passages without knowing the meaning..., you can't just pick bits out without understand the full context, its offensive

I answered C because I don't believe all Christians are that way, but many/most just believe they are "right" in their views and it's therefore "right" of them to impose their view of morality on others via laws or otherwise.