Why do you think separation of church and state became important to many americans.?

Answer 1

Separation of Church and State is important because we have to remember the way Law and the Constitution sees us in general.

In general, the Constitution doesn't trust its citizens. We are citizens of a government because collectively we can't govern ourselves. We need an Enforcer to protect us, even from ourselves. We may know everyone in the community, but somebody at one moment in time may go crazy, want to kill a few, and then the whole system is out of whack.

Therefore, we use the Constitution as a necessity to control basic human selfish impulses to kill or rob or take without permission. Even the most indoctrinated and religious person can skew off in direction (Ted Haggard is one example). Therefore, the Constitution is based on technicalities.

Technically speaking, running a red light when there is ABSOLUTELY NO ONE around for miles is STILL against the law. You can still get fined. You're still technically breaking the law. And it's a good thing.

Now, the church is one thing. The state is another. In such a "technically-led" state, the idea of a God is nonsense. The State would say, "Show me God. No God? Sorry, go away." Just like the example with the red street light, technicalities really work. It's a way of preventing our stupid selfish selves from emerging and creating havoc.

Since religion isn't widely accepted by everyone (Secularists are a huge percentage of the population), the Constitution cannot see it as a fundamental truth. Therefore, it's shenanigans.

The church and the state cannot mix. They just don't live in the same world.

The State leads a secularist perception of people. It's a way to control human animals, who may or may not be dangerous.

Many people want to join church and state...but as you can see, it's difficult to clearly see where the connections would be. It may jeopardize the State and make the State say something like, "Well, God is against men having sex with men, therefore you go to jail for nine months."

See what I mean? If the law of Church became the law of the land, lots and lots of phony charges could be inflicted upon people. And people would revolt.

Answer 2

It became important when America became more and more religiously diverse. At the founding of the America there was an overwhelming Protestant majority but that started changing with immigration in 1800s. The first challenges to religion in public schools came from Catholics and Jews in the 1800s. The question who would dominate public institutions became a very contentious issue and many people thought that minimizing religious influences was the best approach.

Answer 3

To prevent what is going on in the middle east today. If there was no separation we would be living under a theocracy with secret religious police everywhere. Christianity would have evolved into a terrorist state religion under the head of the Catholic church and would control all the affairs of the people like Islam does. Protestantism would have been brutally crushed and the true Word of God suppressed.

Our government should be Christian, in that it should abide by Judao-Christian values, and our leaders should be honest and Christ-loving people, instead of the selfish crooks that they are. But right wing Christian politics, which is no better than Islam, needs to stay under a rock.

Answer 4

Below, I’ve pasted a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson (our third president, the co-founder of the Democratic-Republican party, principal author of the Declaration of Independence and author of the Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom instituting separation of church and state in Virginia) to illustrate his stance on the relationship between religion and government.



But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782



Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814



Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.

-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom



Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind.

-Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822



Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.

-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

Answer 5

First, the Constitution doesn't require a separation of the church and state, it basically says that the state will not establish a religion. Its only important because of the number of cases that reach the Supreme Court and some of their rulings. A small group of people in this country want no references to a religion, claiming it violates the Constitution. Yet, the framers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution used words like 'creator'.

Answer 6

Abuses, plain and simple.

History is filled with abuses where church, and that is any kind of organized religion, when they get into bed with the government, tends to abuse. Religion reinforced with law becomes it's own best defender, and denies basic freedoms to the population.

The founding fathers knew this, being the educated lot they were, and as they were not mostly Christian, wrote into the constitution a clause to protect from these kinds of abuses.

Today we benefit from this, being allowed our basic freedom to choose... one that would be denied if our government were set up any other way. We have freedom of choice, and it is guaranteed as long as we continue to reinforce the separation.

We can already see how easily it is to slip into the abuses with the past 6 years of Christian favoritism in our government. Fortunately, we have seen the slippages, and we also have seen the potential for abuses, and we have nipped much of it before it has had a chance to get off the ground. However, we did miss a few, but even that is being corrected, slowly but surely.

To deny one freedom of choice is to deny all our choices. To try to reverse any of these basic freedoms guaranteed to us in our constitution is to open the door to abuses as we have seen in the past. And those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it. Not a very pretty picture and one which I am sure none of us want to see.

Answer 7

Because the religious authorities in the world denied basic freedoms to the people. Recognizing this flaw, and the benefit of freedom of religion, the founding fathers made it a principal corner stone in the bill of rights.

Answer 8

Middle eastern tales and legends can be entertaining. The use made of these work of fiction by some can be a problem.

Religion has been historicaly a tool of domination of many by a few. Not an american idea realy is it ?

Answer 9

because of the outlandish things done by both the papal state as well as the church of england 300 yrs ago

Answer 10

church and state were never meant to be separated when the founding fathers began the big experiement.
in the 1960's someone found a couple of sentences in Thomas Jeffersons words that eluded to freedom from the bondage of both. and they blew it out of proportion.
No one wants to be oppressed by religion, and No one wants to be in bondage to a tyrannical government. but in the 60's people who didnt believe in God began the war against religion. Even though the same governemtn that gave freedom can be used to take it away