Should you enforce separation of church and state?

Answer 1

Religions have such varying beliefs, common sense legislation should be used for the good of all in a community. * It is "justified" by the 'establishment' clause in the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution and enforced by the 'due process' clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.

Answer 2

Yes. For religion to thrive, separation of church and state is essential to assure religious and intellectual freedom. It also means no religion gets to enforce or mandate its religious beliefs on society, but the government leaves churches and individuals to freely follow their beliefs.

Answer 3

Opinion

It should not be necessary, any governing body should realize that religion can sway their decisions in a rather negative way. However with religions grip on society it was necessary to put in place laws that curbed, even only slightly, religions effect on political decisions.

Opinion

This is a matter of opinion; however, here are some relevant facts: In the past, a church-controlled government impeded scientific progress. At one time, the only accepted belief was that the earth was flat, because religious leaders interpreted The Bible to teach that. Later, also due to faulty interpretation of the Bible, it was dangerous to state that the earth was not the center of the universe. States whose governments are still controlled by religion include Iran and most other Middle-Eastern countries. Nevertheless, many beliefs of the Christian church (which most people are referring to when they mention "church and state") are not unfair and are similar to those of other religions, as well as secular codes of morality. For instance, lying, killing, and stealing are rarely approved of. The U.S. Constitution forbids any laws regarding the establishment of a religion. Instead, legislators should strive to make laws that enforce a universal code of morality, rather than a religious dogma.

Opinion

Religion and government must be separate because our society is multi-faceted with numerous religious denominations and every other degree of belief and non-belief in deities. A government-sponsored religion would choose one and then force the people to obey the doctrines of that religion. Its doctrines would inform the laws, its religious leaders will gain too much power and that type of power corrupts. Religious majorities have historically been extremely unfair to minorities. The separation between church and state must be guarded in order to preserve freedom.

Most of the founders viewed religious interference as damaging to government. Most were deists who believe in the existence of a remote deity who got things started and then backed off, not interfering with the day-to-day existence of humankind. The type of religionists who want to deny church-state separation today seek to impose their man-made religious dogma on the society-at-large. That is exactly what the founders sought to avoid.

Answer 4

There's not a whole lot an individual can do to "enforce" the separation of church and state. However, if by "you" you mean the government, then the founding fathers would say yes. A separation of church and state is important in regards to the practice of freedom of religion; for instance, if the government were to provide funding to a certain church but not another, it is expressing a bias or preference and failing to remain religiously neutral, implying that our government only supports certain religious practices.

The Free Exercise and the Establishment clauses both protect the right to freedom of religion in the United States. Both ensure that the government will be neutral towards religious ideas and practices. And both clauses combined with freedom of speech allow for true freedom of expression and belief. The Free Exercise clause is a positive right, giving the people the right to exercise whichever religion they choose, and the Establishment Clause is a negative right, restricting the government from establishing a national religion.

"It remains a problem to be solved in human affairs whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape." -Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story


As long as you are keeping government out of the church... I'm all for it.