I believe this is just one of many areas in which church elders have failed to guard the sanctuary of God from unlawful intrusion by the state. Please see Appeal To Elders in the NavBar to the left.
Some Christians argue for no separation between church and state. For example, British statesman Edmund Burke (1729-97)said this:
'in a Christian commonwealth the church and state are one and the same thing, being different integral parts of the same whole.'
However, the Bible seems to present church and state as two separate institutions, cooperating within the context of a Biblical culture. II Chr 19:11 describes the arrangement under King Jehoshaphat:
"And behold, Amariah the chief priest will be over you in all that pertains to the Lord; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, in all that pertains to the king.
Although Kings Saul and Uzziah were rebuked severely for intruding in the domain of the priest, there was no such prohibition in the other direction. For example, the same chapter in II Chronicles (19:8) describes some of the Levites and Priests, together with "some of the heads of the fathers' households" judging disputes among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The same arrangement appears in Deuteronomy 17.
