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Dr. Mitch Randall is the Senior Pastor at NorthHaven Church in Norman. These are his remarks from a recent press conference urging lawmakers not to reduce or eliminate tax credits that benefit low-income Oklahomans. You can read the letter in defense of these credits signed by more than 150 Oklahoma clergy here. You can learn more about the credits under threat here. You can find sample language and a contact form to write your legislators here.
This afternoon, I speak from a voice born out of a Baptist heritage including John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, and John Leland. I am a Jeffersonian and Madisonian disciple of complete religious liberty and upholding a wall of separation between church and state. The first sixteen words of the Bill of Rights are paramount, forever drawing a line between the institutions of the church and state.
This separation, however, does not prevent the church and state from working together to address the common good for all our citizens. Our elected officials and legislators have an enormous burden placed upon them, prompting the Apostle Paul to encourage Christians into vigilant prayer for them (1 Tim. 2:1-4). In turn, under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the state has allowed places of worship to conduct social ministries guided by their conscience without any interference from government. This separate but respectful relationship has worked well throughout the history of our democracy, but the current budget crisis Oklahoma now faces places an unbalanced burden on places of worship based upon the failure of the state.An example of this unbalanced burden is asking churches and places of worship to offer more funding for social services. At NorthHaven, we are a proud partner with the Oklahoma Regional Food Bank, providing $5,000 per year in funding for their weekend backpack program. School systems across our state are considering four day school weeks, placing students at home over a three day weekend. The Food Bank will now have to provide meals for three day weekends, instead of the traditional two days. This will increase their budget as they provide for vulnerable Oklahoma families.
[pullquote]“Churches, temples, mosques and other places of worship cannot bear the burden of the state’s failures. We are willing to stand in the gap when called upon by our communities, but this crisis is too large for state legislators to simply push the burden onto others.”[/pullquote]
Therefore, today, I rise with my colleagues – the church, the temple, the mosque, and other places of worship – to be a guiding conscience for civil authorities as they govern us out of this current fiscal crisis. From Baptists and Quakers demanding religious liberty in the founding of America to civil rights leaders fighting Jim Crow laws in the south, ministers have often used their pulpits to offer their voices in the public square supporting a common good for all citizens. Today, this collected body of clergy and partners rise with a united voice to ask Oklahoma legislators to search their collected conscience as they seek solutions to the current budget crisis. If they are men and women of faith, we ask them to follow their faith traditions which surely places a great value and emphasis upon the poor and marginalized of the world.
We pray their collected conscience will discover a solution that will prevent an increase of poverty, prevent further jeopardizing important health care programs, cease shifting tax burdens to vulnerable citizens, and stop hindering public schools from offering the best education they can provide for future generations of Oklahoma children. Together, as citizens of two kingdoms, we can work to rectify this looming crisis, but we must offer this realization: churches, temples, mosques and other places of worship cannot bear the burden of the state’s failures. We are willing to stand in the gap when called upon by our communities, but this crisis is too large for state legislators to simply push the burden onto others. We must work together to find the very best solution to this crisis and keep all of our citizens – especially the most vulnerable – at the forefront of our efforts. For me, and I hope for you, this is what it means to maintain the Oklahoma Standard.
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