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The founding fathers of the United States of America were very adamant regarding their position for the separation of church and state. The First Amendment alone contains two separate clauses that together make very clear their collective view that no religion should ever have a foothold in the United States' government. Although quizzically, they placed many seemingly contradictory mentions of the mythological being of the Judeo-Christian faith known as "God" throughout the documents which were to shape this nation. This strange coincidence begs the question, "Should one's faith play ANY role when it comes to governing this country?"

While most, if not all, of the founding fathers of the United States of America were self-professed "men of God," all of them understood the dangers involved when religion infiltrates government. Almost every religious group in this country today are all staunch supporters of the separation of church and state, and have been since the beginning. Imagine if the U.S. government were to adopt Islam as the state-sponsored religion! If you are a believer in the Judeo-Christian faith, you might have just shuddered a little after reading that last sentence. Now you know how the "losers" feel when a government adopts a state-sponsored religion: terrified and oppressed.

While religions seem to offer positive moral guidance to those who would believe, there are many examples throughout the history of mankind of religious "morals" gone wrong. Followers of Islam most likely find the morals presented in Wicca to be immoral. Followers of Hinduism probably find some morals presented in Christianity to be blasphemous. When dealing with religious morals, there really does not seem to be any universal "right" way to live, nor does there seem to be any universally accepted "wrong" way to live. What seems perfectly acceptable behaviour to you might seem sacrilegious to the person standing next to you. Even what is thought of in the majority of religions throughout the world as the "ultimate" sin, murder, has been and still is perfectly acceptable in, and even glorified by, some religions.

I firmly believe that it is important to leave your religious beliefs at the door when going to the polls. We have, over the past eight years in America, seen the result of doing the opposite of that. President George W. Bush, who claims to be a Christian, received most of his votes from so-called Christians who expected him to inject their specific brand of religious "morals" into the policies of this great nation, and look how that turned out! Has gay marriage been banned? Has abortion been banned? Are schoolchildren across the U.S. no longer taught evolution in science class, and forced to pray instead? None of these things have come to pass since "Dubyah's" "election" in 2000, despite all of them being supposed major goals of the entire Bush administration and the majority of those who voted for him.

Luckily for the U.S. government AND religion, religious faith has not completely infiltrated the United States government yet. If American voters continue to allow their faith to determine whom they will vote for, I believe that this country will be doomed to failure. I believe that the reason why this country was so great for the first 200 years is because we were able to, for the most part, keep religion out of government. There are many indicators that this country is fast becoming something less than a beacon of hope throughout the world. I think most of the underlying problems contributing to that trend can be attributed to our inability to keep one of our (the American citizens) oldest and most sacred pacts with our government: the complete separation of church and state.

Learn more about this author, Mike Hanson.
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