A Separation of Church and State Ensures our Individual Freedoms

"Prayer has been banished from schools and the ACLU rampages to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Moreover, “Separation of Church and State” is nowhere found in the Constitution or any other founding legislation. Our forefathers would never countenance the restrictions on religion exacted today." -- Bill Flax, Forbes, 2011

In today’s society, the separation of church and state is a fundamentally important aspect of our government. Most any citizen would agree that the government should operate based on the law and the constitution, not on the individual 's religious beliefs, yet when the issue is Abortion, that stance is flipped. The debate over abortion rages on despite the supreme court giving women the right to abortion in 1973 with the ruling of Roe v Wade. Looking at both sides objectively, the pro-choice arguments lineup with facts, while the pro-life arguments are either supported by facts yet purposefully misinterpreted, or simply not factual at all. State governments pass laws that regulate abortions and abortion centers all in the attempt to close these centers down and stop women from getting abortions at all, including situations of rape or incest. Just as the government in Brave New World controls the bodies of women by keeping them on contraceptives and controlling their bodily functions through medication, the American government seeks the same control over what women do and don’t do with their body by denying them abortions and birth control.

Our society lacks a moral compass today and we need to find a way to return to our country 's founding values. Is religion the answer? some may think so others may say keep church and state separate. The original statement was in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists Association. In his letter he says “American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church & State” (Jefferson 1802). After this letter was written it went unnoticed or used until the mid 1800’s when a group petitioned Congress to remove Christian principles and values from government. They claimed that there needed to be a “separation of church and state”. Again it was unused officially until 1947 when in the case of Everson verses the board of education the court wanted to build the wall high and impregnable. That wall was never supposed to be as it is now referred to. We need to have the religious freedoms free from government control. How can a private petition be taken out of text and used as a guide for our federal court? Our forefathers were influenced by important values when establishing this country. Also, there were a lot of other influences in our founders thought processes; own life experiences, education, and even self gratification. Just reading The Declaration of Independence you can see where their

History shows a pattern of change in relation to religious involvement of governmental affairs. As religion becomes less a part of American life, the court develops new laws to accommodate our new society. Look to the communities we live in presently and ask yourself if the American people are facing oppression of religious freedom, a freedom listed in our Constitution under the First Amendment. This spirals into an abyss of politics. Is same-sex marriage a personal matter or a public one? Is the Republican Party fair in opting to end abortion? Should a woman have contraceptive included in her health insurance plan despite the religious views of her employer? This is one of the areas in which

Thomas Jefferson fought for separation of church and state, in Virginia. Jefferson fought so strongly for this because under British anarchy, they were persecuted for their religion. This document brought conflict with Jefferson and the Anglican Church, as the Anglican Church believed that Church and State should be one. The idea of Freedom of Religion carries into our government. President’s can swear in with a Bible during oath, though the book may differ on religion. The separation between church and state was one of the most important policies in the United States Constitution and was inputted in the first amendment. In the 1st Aamendment it states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom has ensured Americans’ freedom to express whichever religion they choose, and it is a main part of why The United States of America is so

First, a short recap on American history. During the 17th century, in England the official religion was Anglican, there were few who opposed his majesty and practiced other religions as there were punishments to these actions. Later on, these religious groups were given the opportunity to practice their faith in the New World as colonies of England. Finally, the pilgrims, puritans, Lutherans, and even Catholics had escaped religious persecution they faced in England; in the new found land they could freely practice their beliefs. Therefore, when declaring independence from England, the founding fathers wrote “freedom of religion” in the Bill of Rights and implemented a separation of church and state in order to avoid the government to influence the country based on religious convictions. In an article by Doug Weaver, Weaver references a book by Frank Lambert entitled “Separation of Church and State:

The separation of the church and state is one of the fundamental principles of U.S. government and law and with it, comes a deep history to back it up. It began many years prior to the establishment of the first public educational institution. Towards the end of the 1700s, many different religious groups began to flourish which made it impossible for them all to be under the control of the states. This is where the

The role of religion must also be discussed. It is important to point out many dominations of Protestantism were prevalent in the American colonies. This is something J.C.D Clark points out, ‘Protestantism in the Anglophone world had from the outset been marked by its proliferating diversities’ (Secondary Source 17.2, 2015, p.2). However, the establishment of King’s College in 1754 was perceived in the periphery as Anglicanism being intertwined with government. The Anglican bishops were believed to be ‘agents of the government’ (Speck, 2008, p.22). The establishment of the Anglican Church was opposed for two reasons: firstly, it went against the character of the American colonies with all the different dominations living together without government

With both groups being constantly told that they could not worship what they believed in and worship in the way that they wanted to influenced many to look for a place to practice their religion outside of the kingdom. There was no significant democracy in America, let it be politically or socially. Politically democracy was absent do to the fact that the colonies were ruled by King James I. Early America was a place filled with many opportunities and was a place where many could start fresh. To Many early colonists America was place where they could seek the religious refuge that they had long been searching for.

Since the beginning of human civilization, there continues to be a strong relationship between the state and their chosen religious institution. According to an interpretation of an anecdote of Thomas Jefferson, “He didn’t say he say he believed in the Christian God; he evaded that point. But Jefferson did agree with what all his colleagues in the founding thought that a people cannot maintain liberty without religion” (Novak, M., 2006). While the relationship is inevitable as it is used to unify a population, true government should seek as diminished a relationship as possible. While religious freedom is essential to what America was founded on, it cannot infiltrate our governmental systems

Religion is a big part of the history of the United States. Many of the people who ended up settling in America held very strong religious beliefs and traveled across the ocean from Europe to practice their beliefs in freedom. Our founding fathers, for the most part, held deeply religious beliefs and you can see that legacy on our currency, in our court proceedings, and on government buildings and monuments. Despite what appears a clear integration between religion and government our founding fathers sought ways to limit religions role in government. The first Amendment in the Bill of Rights says, “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (Madison, 1791). Some interpret this to mean that the government can’t set up a church or favor one religion over another. And on this basis is why I believe faith groups and institutions should not be allowed to form political parties or gain influence in the workings of government. This paper will explore some of the reasons why this is problematic and why our founders sought to control religions influence but also letting everyone worship in freedom.

Anita Coleman, the issue of how the church and the state coexist is an important one. Today in the U.S. we take for granted the fact that these two institutions are separated, even though there are major disagreements over what exactly that relationship should be and how much the state should have over the church and vice versa. But during a good amount of ecclesiastical history the church was tied together with the state and influenced civic decisions or in many cases was one with the state and to be at odds with the church was to be at odds with the state, they had become one and the same.

Our current president, George W. Bush, is known for being religious. He has been quoted saying that “God told [him] to strike at al Qaeda,” and “God want[ed] [him] to run for President.” He has called the war on terrorism a “crusade.” When he was the governor of Texas, he created a state-wide “Jesus Day.” In 2001, he talked of the “bridge between church and state” (“Big List of George W Bush Quotes”). The problem? He is tampering with our nation’s history. He is destroying what the Founding Fathers outlined in the Constitution, and he is the president of the United States—and he’s not the only one who thinks this way. In the last decade, the religious right has gained a foothold in American politics and has been forcing through legislation that, if passed, would slowly destroy the separation of church and state. Despite the First Amendment, the intentions of the Founding Fathers, and the obvious corruption that a merging of government and religion would bring—all of which give very good reasons for a complete separation of church and state—these people still claim that the nation’s government is entwined with religion.

Government is the political direction and control exercised over the actions of the members, citizens, and inhabitants of communities, societies, and states. While documents have been written to help the leaders of our country, there is constant debate over what changes need to be made. Some believe that the country is falling apart while others think minor adjustments need to be made. The separation of church and state is also a topic of debate. The question of what needs to be changed and where religion falls in all of this are always questions on the table, but what I know for certain is that the government always has room for growth.

To understand Locke’s argument for the separation of church and state you first need to understand what the purpose of the government is. Locke stated that the government is supposed to support civil interest. These civil interests include property, life, and security. Therefore the government’s job is to protect the civil interests of the people using force lawfully. Once Locke institutes the power of the government he develops three important assumptions vital to the separation of church and state.