Quote:
Originally Posted by Idle
In the Episcopal Church the leaders of the country are prayed for every Sunday.
Also the leaders of the community.
This has been the case for at least 237 years. The G. W. Bush administration launched an IRS investigation against the Church in 2005. The Church made it clear that under no circumstances did they intend to do anything differently.
After a few years the IRS dropped their investigation. The IRS never said why.
This did seem to me to be a Church/State matter, but perhaps they were Grandfathered in. Or maybe it was because more Presidents of the US have been Episcopalians than any other faith.
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To understand the Church & State issue, you have to understand what was on the minds of the Founding Fathers. The Church of England was one of the things they were leaving behind when they came to America. They did not want to see a rerun of that one.
Governments running churches is not a good thing. Of course MANY of us understand that government running almost ANYTHING is a route to eventual disaster.
BTW, Churches praying for the leaders of the country and the community is NOT limited to the Episcopalians. It also is NOT a violation of the separation of Church & State. The separation of Church & State was intended to protect the Church from the State, not to protect the State from the Church.