by John Sarkis

Created on: July 11, 2008   Last Updated: May 10, 2009

Using the USA as an example: Washington did right to make the then infamous church of England stayed out of the US affairs, since it had a great deal of followers. Also,he knew like any other average European did: religion would play a very important role in political affairs. The Catholic Church influenced all forms of governments from the middle ages, and was even influential in having people executed; People's whose only fault was not to follow the Catholic faith. However, even though Washington was ahead of his time in many things, he was quoted as having said: The Bible is a must when ruling a country!" And I know for sure I'm paraphrasing, but even today our own "George" believes this to some degree.

The old debate of "church vs. state" is endless! Many will say that how could a man to whom The Bible was of the utmost importance request for seperation of church and state, but Washington and our other founding fathers requested this in our constitution; many say that Washington was counterintuitive when he requested seperation-yet said that knowledge of The Bible/God was needed in order for a man to rule a country/government....

The USA recently had a situation where a woman stayed one-year in a church for cover. This was an illegal woman who refused to come out of the church. Finally she was forced to leave, but not before having stayed there for one full year. A radio talk show host (shock-jock actually) said something very intuitive, which sadly enough you rarely hear them say: "If this woman would have been staying at a Best Buy, Ralph's, Sears, etc. Would she have been able to stay one full year like she did in a church?" The point being: although we have separation of church and state. Religion plays a very important role in our everyday life in the USA, whether you want to admit this or not.

Although there have been some progress in this topic, it's difficult, for example: praying in the classroom. Some people agree it's a good thing to close your eyes in the morning and meditate, etc,. Others feel you should pray to a specific God (god). Who is to say this is either wrong or wright. An Atheist might think it's a good idea for their children to close their eyes and meditate, why not, it's relaxing...not a bad way to start one's day, especially at school. Today people/children have to deal with snipers at school, or other children have been known to carry knives etc. I don't think any parent, atheist or otherwise would prefer for their children to be exposed to this over being exposed to a daily prayer....

So I end this article on this note: how much can we really separate ourselves from religion? Even if we try, it's not easy. No only in countries who are fanatic about the subject, but even in places like Europe and especially the USA. Will we ever truly be able to say: separation of church and state and really mean it?

On this note I end this article.

Learn more about this author, John Sarkis.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.