Controversial Relationship Between the Church and the State

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Decicco 1 In 1789, the First Amendment established that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” This meant the Federal and State Governments could not be partial or show support for any certain denomination or religious organization. However, throughout the history of the United States the controversial question over the relationship between church and state has always been called into question in establishing a one religion government. The main focus of the inquiry is to decide whether to keep the establishment clause or to tear it down and move towards a theocratic system. One side of the debate is the group against the separation of Church and State, who believe that if America was a more religious nation that it would become more moral as well as bring everyone in agreement with national decision making. Therefore the belief is that the United State would become more unified in an already corrupt system. On the other hand, the side for separation argues that the distance between established religion and national government is inherently necessary to keep maintain: religious tolerance, prevent biases, and prejudices, along with any sort of religious freedom in country that has thousands of different organized religions.

With careful consideration of these arguments, the separation of church and state is not only favorable to the American society but also essential to have a functional governmental democracy. For hundreds of years the Federal Government has had separation between organized religion and government functions which, has shown to best protect the religious freedom of the American people and protect the rights established in the constitution. Therefore, the current establishment of se...

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...nderstood. However, throughout the course of American history activists have tried to sway the idea that joint church and state is not only beneficial, but mandatory for growth in American moral culture. While changing the government may change the sense of leadership, redistricting laws to benefit one specified religious group is contrary to the idea of a democratic system where each person has a chance to be heard and live in equality. The existing stance separation of church and state is an obligation that the American government and people, must fight to uphold in order to insure that the rights of the American population are not infringed upon. The founding fathers fought and died for the ideas of a country that embodied life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and it would be intolerable to try and put a stop to a system that embodies these core ideas.

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