Spirit of Prophecy Counsels Relating To Church-State Relationships

Duty Of State To Protect Liberty Of Conscience

To protect liberty of conscience is the duty of the state, and this is the limit of its authority in matters of religion. Every secular government that attempts to regulate or enforce religious observances by civil authority, is sacrificing the very principle for which the evangelical Christians so nobly struggled.—The Great Controversy, 201. SPCCSR 16.1