I believe most people agree that religion should not have political power or be subject to political power.?

Question

In other words. Freedom of religion. But in a free society how could it be prevented?

Answer 1

I blame other people for using their religion for opinions in politics, but I just realized that I do it all the time myself.

I'm a humanist.

Answer 2

Let religion be concerned with saving souls and the state with everything else. The two should never have anything to do with each other. One can have a religious belief and that may govern their individual belief system and thus affects how one votes or what he supports. NO religion has any right to tell one how to vote or what party to support. Every time we have had churches making secular decisions there have been problems. Look at N. Ireland, or Iran during our life times. In the past we had the Spanish Inquisition.

Answer 3

If Religion wants to reserve the right to avoid taxes they don't have any business in the political arena. This is the trade off, but some people want to ignore this part of the argument that has already been debated with the founding fathers. When Religions start paying taxes they will have there say, until then the argument is stale.

Answer 4

People's beliefs are what guides them in any arena, including politics. However, no church of other religious organization should have any direct control over the government. Any society is made up of people with different backgrounds and religions. To allow one church total control infringes on the rights of everybody else. The only way to prevent this is avoiding electing individuals that want to make this happen.

Answer 5

This is a problem that is cause by people refusing to read their history books and not reading the Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. What is supposed to happen is: Congress shall pass no laws pertaining unto religion. PERIOD. The liberal Supreme Court outlawing religion in public school is, quite simply, illegal.
No one wants to be told what religion to have or how to worship; the simplest way to have that happen is for the Supreme Court to illegally decide religion cannot be part of school, cannot have nativities on court yards, etc.
If people want freedom, they had better start reading, and I don't mean the local rags (newspapers).
An "informed public" is the fear of all dictatorships (like China, North Korea, Germany before, Spain, Mexico, Cuba...and starting to be the case in the U.S.)
Be informed; urge others to be informed. Most of the freedoms people used to take for granted have already disappeared in the U.S.

Answer 6

Separation of Church and State simply means that the government cannot impose a state religion onto the people.

It does not mean that people serving in public office cannot have or practice a religion.

That being said I believe that a theocracy or religion being suppressed by the government can be avoided by people simply participating, vote, call your representatives, be a part of the system instead of being a turtle hiding in your shell.

Oh, and for those that stated that the United States is a Democracy, it is not and never has been a Democracy, we are a Representative Republic.

Answer 7

I don't even agree with this way of putting it. There is nothing in the US Constitution that says "religion should not have political power." When you have a church telling you how to pray, or the government telling you how to pray, then we have a problem. Secularism is alive and well in the US.

Answer 8

Freedom should always be tempered by Virtue lest it be carried to the abstract. Prudence and ethics should take priority before over emotional zealots. We should take note of the havoc in history accredited to religious fervor and examine the theocratic governments and leadership throughout the world today and base a conclusion on these empirical evidences.

Answer 9

I agree in the seperation of church and state, and when the Church starts getting into politics, and trying to influence voters opinions, and their choice of candidates, then it's time to start charging the Church taxes, like every other corporation pays.

While freedom of religeon is an important right for every citizen, when the government starts spouting religeon, and making laws favoring one religeon over another, there is no longer a seperation, which is illegal according to the Constitution, the very same Constitution that Our Elected President swore "To uphold and defend".

Answer 10

Good question. I think my faith *informs* me about how I should vote, but I am extremely distrustful of anyone who *uses* religion to curry votes. I would never allow anyone to parade their "faith" as a qualification for government.

Any chance that our democracy becomes tinged with any religion by overt force, and we are no longer a democracy, but rather a theocracy.

"Render unto Caesar..."