Biblical basis for the separation of church and state I know there are a lot of non-biblical arguments for the separation of church and state. Some Christians also support it on biblical grounds, but I've never looked into the matter myself. Which passages of the Bible support the idea?
Some people use Mark 12:17 towards this goal.


  17 And Jesus answering said unto them, "Render to Caesar the things
  that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they
  marvelled at him.


The argument goes something like this:  The government is here to govern the society here on Earth.  God has been given to us to govern our hearts, minds, and souls.  So, we should allow the government to do what it does best and allow God to be in control of all the other things.

The argument is generally followed with the idea that we need to elect Christians into government and pray for our government officials, but that religion should be separate from the state.

Personally, I think this is a bit of a stretch.  The more solid arguments are the non-biblical ones (prevention of the majority overriding the minority, insuring freedom of religion, etc.)