The boundary between the two will always be unclear. Leaders will disagree about where the line should be drawn. Each solution is negotiated for only a moment and unlikely to last. In the practical realities of parish life, church and state are never easily divided. There are, of course, professional distinctions between lawyering and pastoring.
Clients treat their lawyers differently than church members treat their pastors.
Like clergy, judges may wear black robes, and courts have liturgy, ritual and oaths, but no one confuses judges with clergy, or court procedure with worship. And the great gap in financial compensation between most clergy and lawyers suggests a significant differential in power. Clergy may not so frequently be the butt of nasty jokes, but unfortunately, they can't take good will to the bank. Institutional tensions between law and church are longstanding and apparently universal. From the state churches in Christian history to the role of clergy as state leaders in modern Muslim nations, from the influence of Mormons in Utah to the agenda of the Christian Coalition in American political decisions, religious and political organizations cooperate and contend with each other.