No

by Diana Dukart

Created on: October 29, 2007

The United States is founded on the principle of separation of church and state. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

James Madison, known as the Father of the Constitution, justifies this decision. "The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries."

History shows many examples of wars started over religion from the political arena. The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Thirty Years War, and the Reformation are examples of only of few that have bloodied human history and cost millions of lives.

Beginning as early as the seventeenth century, people begin to see the difficulties in combining religious and state concerns. The church became corrupt as people used it as a powerful leverage to promote political agendas and suppress the ideas of others.

"Of all religions, Christianity is without a doubt the one that should inspire tolerance most, although, up to now, the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men." - Voltaire

We distinguish ourselves from other animals by using reason and logic. It is our brains that make us an imposing force; but this is exactly what Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, wanted to dilute.

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God." - Martin Luther

Our founding fathers saw this as a problem and sought to remove it from our government. "The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." - Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 , 1798

Starting in the 1970s, a group of individuals have sought to undermine this principle by promoting premillennialism though government influence and control.

"We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply spreading the Gospel in a political context." - Paul Weyrich

"Get them saved, get them baptized, and get them registered [to vote]." - Jerry Falwell

Though a relatively small group, there is evidence of influence in domestic and foreign policy changes. For example, there is the blocking of stem cell research, new abortion restrictions, advocating the teaching creationism in schools by the president, proposing a constitutional amendment defining marriage by the president, and limiting foreign aid packages from distributing condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Religion is not the problem. The problem is combining religion and secular government. We need to learn from our history that religion does not work with government. More importantly, religion is not necessary to run a government. In fact, the record in the United States shows that separation of church and state promotes and enhances religious diversity and freedom.

Religious fundamentalists are not promoting their religions; they are promoting political power for themselves. We need to make our voting decisions on reason and thought, not what one person tells us to do on Sunday morning. Justifying our voting decisions outside of religious context, not only confirms what we really believe in a secular form, it will reflect our values regardless if we use religion or not.

Learn more about this author, Diana Dukart.
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