Who is Caesar?

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1159

 

I think there is a serious flaw in Neuhaus’s position.  He talks about the separation of church and state and “giving unto Caesar,” but he is living in the past.  What happens to the Church when we the people are Caesar?   We are not living in an autocracy where Caesar is in a different class and separate from us.   In the symbolism used by Jesus, we have become Caesar.  By renouncing our responsibility for influencing the state, by insisting on functioning as a “exiles from our true home, aliens in a strange land” we exempt ourselves from responsibility for this secular state that grew out of our church.  We should step up to our responsibility, throw off our pilgrim’s robes, quit whining, quit pretending it is big them against little us, and accept our role as a functioning part of our Liberal Democracy.

 

Lawrence Helm