Do you think church and state should be separated?

Question

The fundamental idea that politics and religion should not intersect or overlap is flawed. It sounds great in theory; however, in reality I would suspect that most people do not divide their worldview into secular and sacred. For better or for worse, the marriage of politics and religion will not be undermined by political correctness or even the laws governing the seperation of church and state.
We as a society must be mature enough to realize that although we all come to the table of brotherhood, we all do not sit on the same side. All Christians, Muslims, and Jews did not come to the table of America via the same journey, parentage, cultural perspectives, or starting points. Naturally we will not all share the same views on social or political issues. How someone understands his or her faith and how a person uses his or her vote are part of a total picture of how we as a collective people create our world views. The IRS should not seek to antogonize churches for participating in the democratic process. Yes, the church is an institution that is a community of faith, but the church is also an institution that is a community of concerned citizens who usually share the same or simular values and worldviews.

What people vote for or against is usually an extension of what they believe on a sacred level.

Therefore, I do not see anything wrong with like-minded people who happen to belong to the same institution discussing and exercising their right to vote for or endorse a particular candidate.

Answer 1

Your question is very well written, however I don't agree with the conclusion you ultimately reached. While each person that is a member of the church (or mosque, grotto etc) has the right to exercise free speech, to discuss political view points and to vote for the candidate of their choice. The Church however as a tax exempt entity is prohibited from endorsing candidates or otherwise participating in the political process. If the Church wishes to operate a political action group, it should be organized as such within the laws of the United States.

Every time someone asks this question, some moron will pop in with "separation between church and state is not mentioned in the Constitution" While this is technically correct, the idea of separation of church and state is part of the first amendment. There are two examples that point to this:
1. The phrase separation of church and state is generally traced to a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists, in which he referred to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state.
2. Another early user of the term was James Madison, the principal drafter of the United States Bill of Rights, who often wrote of "total separation of the church from the state."

If the principal drafter of the bill of rights says "total separation of the church from the state.", we can pretty much assume that is what was intended by the first amendment.

Answer 2

Well, when the pope first suggested the idea in the 1300's what was he thinking. He was the supreme religious leader of the European continent and yet HE proposed the idea of separation of temporal and spiritual interests. Why? Because all too often the desires and needs of the temporal world corrupted the intention and purpose of the spiritual. Prince A, supports the church and is attacked by Prince B, who is also supported by the church. So after all of Prince A's guys are killed, Prince B goes to Rome to seek absolution for the job well done. This is how you get yourself into trouble, What do princes D, E and F think about you if you give B absolution. Will they revolt? Will they come to your aid if you're in trouble? This is the essential problem you got into with a policy of Church and State perfect together. Examined another way, If I'm a Adamsian and suggest we design and use the government to pay for my new religious center of the Church of the Holy Rodents? How do you feel about that if you are a simple Protestant? Should we exclude certain faiths, which one's? Neoconservatives say all Muslims hate us all passionately, so Muslims perhaps? Or Jews ? Catholics certainly are doing fine on their own perhaps we shouldn't include them? Churches with denominations numbering under 20 perhaps? Furthermore, once we've established the new faith based government services , we can't have 7th day adventists just strolling about, they need to be brought into more conventional thinking, State policy should convert all the stray protestants back to Simple Lutheranism , it will save on paperwork and increase revenues when standard tithing mandates are increased next year. Oh BTW, the kids, well they were kind of misbehaving based on moral code 105-5 subsection 2, the other day so they have to go to re-education camp and come to think of it - you used to be some flavor of non-sanctioned Christian too , perhaps it's best if you just come with us. What an awesome idea! State Sanctioned Mc God!

Answer 3

YES of course they should be separated! If churches are going to be tax exempt then a little restraint on their political involvement seems a fair trade-off. I don't want others tell me how to worship or not worship, even in my church, especially in my church. Open discussion is different from promotion of one or more candidates. I'm not sure what your point is about the IRS seeking to antogonize (antagonize?) churches for participating in political process. If they don't choose to be tax exempt then they won't have any government limits on political expression. Once they make that choice, they are stuck by the rules. Can't have their cake and eat it too.

Answer 4

You make a good point. However, if government officials made laws based on their religion, you would see a SHARP curtail in the freedoms of the people who don't share the same religious views.

The bible says to obey the laws of the land. That in itself tells me that the bible knew religious laws and laws of the land were going to be separate.

No law should interfere with the rights of other Americans. And I'm sure there are people of faith who understand that.

Answer 5

yes, I think Church and State should be separated.

Very - Separated.

Some day this country will have a President who is Not of the Christian faith. Do you want the state pushing some Religion that you don't belong to ?

Answer 6

I completely agree with Oxy, anytime in the history of man that religion has intertwined with the running of a government it has led to war, look at our current situation with our own leader who declares "GOD told him to run for President". The American peoiple are slowly losing their rights and religion has only been used as a platform to get these corrupt politicians in office who are less "spiritual" by the way, than most atheists I know. In our government religion is only used as a platform, and not a guidance for a moral rule. If it were we would not be in this situation in Iraq, and we would have universal healthcare and stronger laws supporting the preservation of our evironment. After all, is a TRUE christian about preserving the planet our GOD gave us and helping our fellow brothers. But all that gets overlooked by the evil spin doctors that are currently in office. Open your eyes people George Bush and all his cronies are not TRUE christians.

Answer 7

Religion + Politics = Bloodbath + Oppression

Every time. Every place. No exceptions.

Source: World History

Answer 8

Yes, I do believe that religion should have no effect on government. In my view, it would be amazing if this were to happen, unfortunately, religion does effect government because many of the politicians' values come from their religion. Religion has also affected the abortion issue the ethical questions of cloning and stem cell research. Basically, religion still has a major effect on politics, unfortunately.

Could someone please answer this:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiPOefnTsglNbIivWiLKODrsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071007194041AAIHXR1

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071008150806AAnGBh0&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHwLbtuHOs5SaDFmwsv4KIy20GiFZ2BUcNE6w--&paid=asked&msgr_status=

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071008211244AA7vFJg&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHwLbtvFOk6R5q0AyW2pEn9h_X.AP8.o1Mrjg--&paid=asked&msgr_status=

Answer 9

The church and state are separated. The state doesn't tell us what to believe nor interfere with the practice thereof [at least they shouldn't].

We have freedom of religion and the exercise thereof as long as we initiate it not the state. That goes for voting our consciences.

Your assessment is correct.

+

Answer 10

THEY ARE! Where is the government telling us to be part of a certain religion or that we must go to church at all? That's what the founding fathers were concerned about. Displaying the 10 Commandments or mentioning 'God" is not a religion.

What religion is being mentioned in the 10 commandments? Sure, the Jews had it but the Christians have it too. There's lots of different Christian "religions."

What about mentioning "God?" Again, that specific religion is being mentioned. Obviously the founding fathers didn't think it was an issue since THEY put it on the money and in official buildings.