Posted in responce to Max Wallace, Religion, government and free speech: The case of New Zealand on the ABC Religioin and Ethics page.

The other problem with the so called separation of Church and State is one cannot separate belief from political motivation. It could be argued that Christians should accept a version of Luther’s two kingdom theology. That this theology could justify having two completely different belief systems. I suspect that is the origins of the Kantian notion that religion is part of the private sphere of belief and public policy is part of the scientific sphere of public fact.


My first problem with that is public policy is not philosophically or religiously neutral. It rests on assumptions that are derived from ‘private belief”.

The other is there are those, like me, who accept the unified thought of Calvin. Two kingdoms theological schizophrenia is madness. Either the New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner suggests a place for me to seek treatment or assists me in building a religious belief that permits toleration.