Why is it that you suppose that the Church would oppose the union of temporal and spiritual authority? Vatican City is, itself, an example of exactly this sort of arrangement
**You should look at the Church historically. When the Church became immersed in politics, the invariably ran into problems. That’s where you find the anti-popes and the multiple popes, and well other heretical behavior. It took the Church some time to readjust to its new position as a Papal State, governing only itself, but I don’t think it would happily return as the state Church. **
. You say “most” see the current secular state of government as preferable to one where religion forms a formal component of the state. I wonder who it is that these individuals are and I further question their motives in preferring such a government. Too often the preference for a secular state is rooted in the individual’s desire to be free to engage in the sins he or she is tempted towards.
**OUr country was founded on the principal that the Government shall make no law establishing any religion. Nobody, last I heard was in favor of changing this. I think its motivated by wanting to be free to practice one’s own religion or no religion without interference by the state. **
In the question over civil unions, we have come upon just this sort of deviant behavior seeking legal sanction based on some of the more secular principles of the eighteenth century. Though there are secular arguments to be made that oppose granting legal recognition to same-sex couples, ultimately such arguments must return to the morality we all mean the state to enforce. Since a secular morality is a contradiction, in order to win the battle against this pervasive evil we must begin to return to a legal framework that is explicitly grounded in religious values.
**Well you go out and announce that as your platform, and we can see how happy people are to be in a Catholic theocracy. **
To install Catholic religious values into the government this means that for same-sex couples there can be no marriage, no civil unions, no wills, no private contracts, no healthcare surrogacy and no deeds held in tandem. Absolutely no legal means for such individuals to make an end-run around the moral law can be permitted. The love of Christ demands that every means be used to rip such individuals apart from one another. The truly just society that we, as serious Christians, are called to enact provides no safe harbor for sin!