Church and State
I was raised in a deeply religious Christian (Protestant) family. The Protestant heritage includes a strong belief in the strict separation of church and state. This was a rational reaction to the horrors of state sponsored attacks on those with a different faith than the rulers.
The USA is a large and culturally diverse nation. Our citizens practice many religious faiths, and some choose to not adopt a religion.
The United States has maintained the separation of what the government requires compared with what a given religious faith demands.
We are a country of many faiths, some Christina, some not. Of the many Christians in the USA, some adhere to a fundamentalist approach, while other Christians do not accept the precepts of the Evangelical Right.
Our country is tilting dangerously in the direction of one strata of faith–those who profess Fundamentalist Evangelical values. Those are great people, and many are my freinds. I respect them for their deeply held values. But in the United States of America, it is not proper and not legal under our Constitution for any religion to control our government.
Unfortunately, the current administration, for crassly political reasons, is supporting and promoting Evangelical Christian philosophy.
Witness this report by CNN on the Judith Miers nomination to the US Supreme Court:
[tease]
“President Bush suggested Wednesday that Harriet Miers’ evangelical Christian beliefs were part of the reason he nominated her to the Supreme Court, but a White House spokesman said her religion played no role in her selection.
“Harriet Miers is a person of faith,” Scott McClellan told reporters. “She recognizes, however, that a person’s religion or personal views have no role when it comes to making decisions as a judge.”
What will it take before the millions of non-Fundamentalists in the USA say “Enough is enough”? Our current government is not keeping Church separate from State. This shift in our policy is unconstitutional.
We must join hands to prevent the United States from slipping into the abyss of a theocracy.