Blog from the Capital

Thanks to a reader for pointing to this recent story, in which a handful of Virginia state police chaplains preferring to resign their positions than offer non-sectarian ceremonial prayers at official, state-sponsored events that are "respectful of the varied ethnicities, cultures and beliefs of our employees, their families and citizens at-large."

In addition to those chaplains, another person upset by this decision is state delegate Charles Carrico, Sr. who claims this reasonable restraint represents something even more sinister than the separation of church and state.

"It's a separation of Jesus and state, which offends me greatly," he said. "What we have here is an attack on the name of Jesus, on the name of Christ. And I'm not going to sit back and just let it happen."

Carrico said he intends on introducing legislation that would address the issue.

But this is, of course, exactly the point. Jesus is not in fact the state, and the state is not Jesus. Keeping them separate is what we should be doing. Could there be a more brazen disregard for religious liberty in America than the bluntly stated intention to marry the two?

I have to say, I can at least appreciate the difficulty of the free speech and free exercise concern for chaplains. I've written before, it must require a special person to be able to minister to diverse constituents. Clearly, it's not a job suited for all members of the clergy. But, arguing on the grounds that Jesus and the state must not be separate? Seriously?