On the Way of Separation,
we treat faith and reason the same way that parents treat warring siblings on long road trips: You sit on this side, and you sit on that side, and please — for the love of God — try not to hit each other!
It's now clear to me that, while the belief persisted for many
reasons (including the way
faith is used as a political weapon), a major
reason was that media, racists,
and liberal elites alike tend to
treat African American Christianity as a cultural, not a theological, phenomenon.
Among them were pantheism
and the positions that human
reason is the sole arbiter of truth
and falsehood
and good
and evil; that Christian
faith contradicts
reason; that Christ is a myth; that philosophy must be
treated without reference to supernatural revelation; that every man is free to embrace the religion which, guided by the light of
reason, he believes to be true; that Protestantism is another form of the Christian religion in which it is possible to be as pleasing to God as in the Catholic Church; that the civil power can determine the limits within which the Catholic Church may exercise authority; that Roman Pontiffs
and Ecumenical Councils have erred in defining matters of
faith and morals; that the Church does not have direct or indirect temporal power or the right to invoke force; that in a conflict between Church
and State the civil law should prevail; that the civil power has the right to appoint
and depose bishops; that the entire direction of public schools in which the youth of Christian states are educated must be by the civil power; that the Church should be separated from the State
and the State from the Church; that moral laws do not need divine sanction; that it is permissible to rebel against legitimate princes; that a civil contract may among Christians constitute true marriage; that the Catholic religion should no longer be the religion of the State to the exclusion of all other forms of worship;
and «that the Roman Pontiff can
and should reconcile himself to
and agree with progress, liberalism
and modern civilization.»