The Trap

Stephen Carson points out the correlation between past and present "leaders":

As one quick example among many, the President of Bob Jones University, Bob Jones III, wrote these words to President Bush after the recent election: "In your re-election, God has graciously granted America – though she doesn’t deserve it – a reprieve from the agenda of paganism… We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet… we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly… The liberals despise you because they despise your Christ."

Compare this to Bishop Eusebius (c. 260–c. 341) writing in his important Church History about the first Christian emperor, Constantine: "the emperor, friend of God… the mighty victor Constantine, outstanding in every virtue godliness confers… with God… as Guide and Ally, father and son divided their forces against the haters of God on every side… all tyranny was eradicated." There is more along these lines in Eusebius' Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine.

Though we have never been burned at the stake here in America we can empathize with they way early Christians must have felt in the heat of Roman persecution. One could make the argument that, as far as relationships go, the Council of Nicene is akin to Faith Based Initiatives.

Carson reasons rightly that government feels "the American people could not be trusted to take care of each other without State guidance."

...the Roman Empire's embrace of Christianity was an attempt to sustain the Empire with the vitality of the Christian movement. That is, the Empire needed the Church not the other way around.