What religion should control our lives is we didn't have Seperation of Church and State?

Question

I personally don't like the idea of a religion controlling the US Government, nor gov't controlling religion.

But to make people that don't support the seperation of church and state happy-WHAT RELIGION WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTROL THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT-IF SEPERATION DIDN'T EXIST?

I believe in the seperation, and I'm Catholic.

Answer 1

I am watching this as well. I am a Catholic and I do not want any religion controlling the government. We should maintian our freedom.

Answer 2

I don't think this separation is a good thing, neither do I think a state religion is going to be the result of removing the laws as interpreted by the Supreme Court. I believe churches should be able to run PAC's and pay for lobbying, but this doesn't mean a church would seize control of the nation any more than business has seized control or the ACLU has. I am concerned with the idea of government funding church run programs because this would make the church subject to the dictation by the government of the running of the programs. If you want to screw up a successful program, just give control over it to the government.

Examples: public schools, welfare, social security, environmental studies, etc.,

http://judgeright.blogspot.com

Answer 3

From my blog:


August 30, 2006 : The First Amendment.



The First Amendment.



What does the First Amendment say, what does it really mean, why does it exist, and what are the benefits to the USA, and to religion?

(Throughout this, I address some ill-informed arguments that are sometimes based on it?



First: What does it say, with regard to religion?



“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”





Second: What does it mean?



There are two portions of this statement. The first concerns the prohibition of the government respecting an establishment of religion. The second concerns the free exercise of religion.



The first clause (the “Establishment Clause”) prohibits the government from taking a side in religious matters. Note that it says that the government cannot even “respect” a religion. Some people mistakenly believe that it only prohibits the government from “establishing” a religion. This is factually wrong, and usually based on the ‘nickname’ of the clause, rather than based on the clause itself. Congress cannot even pass a law saying “Christianity is a good thing.” That’s overt respect.



The second clause is usually easier to understand. It says that you can worship whoever you want, and in whatever fashion you want. There are, of course, well-established limits on this (just like the limits on free speech… see the famous “yelling fire in a crowded theatre” reference)… you can’t use religion as the basis to break any other laws. So no, you can’t create a cult and sacrifice a virgin. Sorry.



The issue of public places / public schools / public displays / public funding, etc:

The second clause also does give people the freedom to worship how they would like in public. CHILDREN CAN AND DO PRAY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. That is protected under the second clause. The religious right flat out LIES when they say that prayer has been removed from public schools (or public school events). What has been removed is the *school’s ability* to organize such prayer. The school is an extension of the government, and as such by extension respect an establishment of religion.



Is Christianity an establishment of religion?

Yes. And this has been reiterated time and time again in the courts. Just because Christianity has many sects, this does NOT mean that it’s not a religion in and of itself. That’s one of the most ridiculous arguments used by the right.



“But Congress didn’t make a law….”

The right sometimes tries to split hairs by claiming that because a local public school board wants to pray to Christ in school, they have the right, since they are not Congress. Why is this crap? First, the 10th Amendment gives all powers not given to the federal government to the states. Guess what? The power to recognize a religion was given to the federal government under the 1st Amendment. The States thus don’t have the legal authority to disregard the 1st Amendment. Second, schools are funded in large part by appropriation LAWS, passed by you-know-who: Congress! The second that a public school promotes a religion, its own funding becomes illegal.



“There is no freedom FROM religion…”

There is truth to this. You do not have the freedom to not be exposed to religion. If a person wants to preach Mormonism in a public place, you have no constitutional right to not be exposed to it. HOWEVER, you do have freedom FROM *government sponsored* religion. That means that if the Mormon in the example is using a government or school PA system to preach (thus using the US government’s resources) then this is unconstitutional. It means that any government-sponsored event should not use its platform to promote religion. Obviously, this is done today. No, that does not mean that it is constitutional (that of course would involve circular logic). The 1st Amendment is constantly broken today, unfortunately.





Third: Why does the 1st exist?



One of the many reasons why people came to the US and ended up establishing a new country was because in England, there was little freedom of religion. The architects of the constitution saw how government involvement in religion hurt BOTH religion AND government.



NO, the US was NOT NOT NOT founded on Christianity. First off, many of the founders were Deists, not Christians, so don’t buy that lie. But you know what? The religion of the founders is irrelevant anyway! Even if they were 100% Christian (again, that’s not true), the founders had the opportunity to establish a Christian Nation. History shows that it was even debated. They EXPLICITLY did not do this. The simplest challenge to this position, is to just ask, why didn’t they do it if they wanted to? What stopped them? They wrote the constitution and could have put anything in it that they wanted to. But they didn’t include Christianity as a national religion. And to top that off, they added the 1st Amendment which established the US as a secular government.



By the way, secular does NOT mean atheistic. The US government NEVER promotes atheism, so don’t buy that lie either. Even if “under god” was removed from the pledge, that is not promoting atheism, but neutrality!!!! Promoting atheism would be then adding, “One nation, there is no god.” But of course no one is suggesting such a thing.





Fourth: What are the benefits of the 1st?



To government: it keeps the government out of the constant explosive topic of religion. It allows the government to focus on what it is actually supposed to be doing. It also makes sure that the government is never in a position to discriminate based on creed.



Look, religions fight each other. It’s what they do best. Christian sects fight Christian sects. Just ask a Baptist what they think of Catholicism if you don’t believe me. The 1st establishes the government as a neutral demilitarized zone, which won’t get dragged down by sectarian fights.



To religion: it keeps religion from destroying itself. YES religion benefits from the 1st. Look at Iraq. Shi’ites and Sunii’s (sp?) are killing each other constantly in a battle for religious supremacy and power over the country.



Ask yourself this: what would happen if the 1st was ever overturned? Organized prayer would be in the schools the very next day. How long will it be before the following happens?:



A Catholic teacher tells a class that the Catholic Church is the only One True Church.

A Methodist teacher prays for people to learn to accept gay people and let them marry.

A Wiccan teacher leads an invocation to the Goddess.

A Baptist teacher tells the class that all Catholics are going to hell for following the False Prophet (the pope)

A Muslim teacher reads a prayer from the Quran.

An Atheist teacher tells the class that Jesus is a myth.



And how much longer after these events will it take before nutjobs start protesting every school, or even killing teachers & bombing classrooms?

Theists would go APE-****!





To any religious person who wants the 1st Amendment overturned to get prayer in schools or to create a Christian nation, all I have to say to you is this:



BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.









About the only safe people would be the agnostics. We’d get some popcorn and beer, sit back, and watch everyone try to kill each other.



Then when the dust clears, we’d re-establish a secular government.

Answer 4

I know! I don't know why people think the Separation of Church and State is so bad. This is just to prevent any one religion having domination in government policies--what the original colonists were escaping England for!

Answer 5

I do not think one can truly separate church and state. The state was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Values are mental/spiritual in nature. Further, our focus (at least it should be) on helping each other (which is a Judeo-Christian value), rather than 'every man for himself'.

Answer 6

The Frisbee religion. It's just free flying. Once in a while you might get smacked, but no real harm done and when you die you end up on your neighbors roof.

Answer 7

Our founding Fathers did not desire a nationwide church , although there grew to become right into a communicate on it. yet grew to become into desperate that a state church might could desire to lots skill. additionally observed how state run Church's forgot approximately Jesus Christ and ended up aligning themselves with the government. that they had given up preaching Jesus. the Fathers believed that persons of religion have been the only thank you to have an upright government. it is the reason they placed freedom of religion as our first suitable. they weren't afraid to enact rules and rulings using Jesus call . John Jay as a choose had a guy whom grew to become into discovered liable for homicide. from the bench he advised the guy that he desire Jesus as Savior and if the guy wanted the loo jay might come to penal complex. and tell him approximately Jesus. we've got judges threating extreme schoolers for the point out of Jesus in college. study this quote via John Adams, in case you go searching he grew to become into absoulte suitable. John Adams. we've no government armed in skill able to contendind with human passions unbridled via morality and faith. our shape grew to become into made purely for a non secular and ethical human beings. it is thoroughly inadequate for the government of the different. lower back our founding Fathers based this united states on the bible( honestly the God of the bible.) . with the theory that persons of religion may be maximum suitable suited to steer the country and that persons of religion may be the great majority of the country. there's a e book out referred to as below God written via Toby Mac and Michael Tait. has many great expenses and letters from our founding Fathers on their ingenious and prescient of the USA of a.

Answer 8

Probably a partnership between Taoism and Buddhism, with advisors from all the major faiths.

Answer 9

The one that mandates "love your neighbor as yourself".

Answer 10

None, I'd move to Canada.