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Ragamuffin | 1 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 Specifically in the United States, prior to the civil war the church was still considerably anti-state. The civil war brought a push from the federal government to align the churches with the state.
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Duncan Cary Palmer | 1 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +2 
 True, but only if you're speaking relative to today's situation...

Many if not most churches during the founding era were Protestant descendants of reformers who were fundamentally statist in their theology. Mentally, they were already captured by the state.

The reformers' core confusion was later systematized by Abraham Kuiper as "Sphere Sovereignty," falsely identifying the state as "civil government" rather than seeing it for what it is in truth; namely, the kingdom of satan in perpetual opposition to the Kingdom of Jesus/God/The Heavens.
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Ragamuffin | 1 months ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag +1 
 Dangit, you're a swell cat!