Question

What were Locke’s three primary reasons for keeping government and religion separate? Which one of those reasons do you think is the most applicable today, and why?

Answer 1

• John Locke’s political philosophy stressed a high degree of importance on stability and this was the foundation of his argument in “A letter Concerning Toleration” that advocates a secular state and the separation of religious and governmental institutions.
• Locke presents three main premises that support his argument for the separation of thechurch and the state, the first of which concerns the “Care of Souls” not being “Committed to the civil magistrate by God”. This refers to the fact that the attention of people’s intrinsic self-concerns was not a task given to the magistrate by God, rendering it as an agenda to be tackled by a separate body.
• The second premise entails this,depicting that coercion cannot convince us of theological truths or force us to hold personal beliefs and that the magistrates power “Consists wholly in compulsion” outlining the state’s incapacity to impose these beliefs even if it felt so inclined.
• It has, in essence, the ability to ensure conformity in that which is susceptible tocoercion (external behaviour, for example), but not ensure conformity in belief.
• The third premise concerns the problem of a theocratic society on an international level. In saying that
  “ Amid the variety of opinions that different princes hold about religion, the narrow gate that leads to heaven would inevitably be open to very few”,he portrays the thought that the coincidence of birth in a particular country and the associated magistrate to which one is therefore subordinate should not be a factor in “Man’s eternal happiness or misery”.Locke is conveying that influencing one’s path to
  heaven or hell is not the duty of the state because of its inherent territorial constraints and that this pursuit of internal salvation is one to be aided by a religious body that can be followed regardless of coincidence of birth.
• It could be said that the church and state are more institutions that are separate from each other, whereas religion and politics are activities that occur in spheres of citizen’s everyday lives. Nonetheless, Locke claims that the idea of separation is linked to tolerance, as human beings lack tolerance for one another, the controversy between religion and politics increases. Locke mentions that if religion was forced onto a country, how would one know which to follow from the multiple religions in the world?
• Locke addresses his fear of ‘religious forces’ threating to rule the state and its citizens. Locke was ‘concerned with religious freedom’ and believed that the biggest threat to citizens would be if the state starting talking about religion.
• It is evident from Locke’s letter that he did not accept the notion that the church and state or religion and politics should be one entity. In fact he wanted them to be as separate as possible so no religious force or power in government could rule the citizens’.
• If there was no religious force then everyone religious or non-religious could enjoy the same rights as everyone else and this certainly applies to the world today.Where communalism is on a rise,the right to follow your own religious beliefs(or not) despite whichever country you live in is becoming more crucially important.Nobody can be forced to follow religion,everyone has the right to decide what they want to follow or not.