Separation Of Church And State

Here are some scary words: “separation of church and state.” To some people, those words are something they do not much care for. The reason for this is because there are misconceptions between what exactly separation between church and state actually means. A large amount of people think that it means government officials, and those in charge of our government cannot have anything to do with religion. In reality, it means that religion can not influence the laws being made. Likewise, the government also cannot influence what religion its people are. Those in position to govern our country can be of any religion they like and can practice it as they please. Their belief in a high power if they have one, however, can not be the reasoning behind

According to Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Education Project, the founding fathers were protecting religious freedom by using to first amendment to bar the government from their affairs (24). Mr. Haynes continues by saying that Evangelical Christians were once among the strongest defenders of the separation in the 19 and early 20th century (25). Evangelical Christians are now the ones trying to take down the wall. President John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, had felt compelled during his campaign to go to Houston and convince a room full of Protestant ministers that he was committed to the separation. President Kennedy wanted to assure them that being Catholic would not affect how he would act as president. His actions show the church-separation has some historical backing to it, even if the words do not appear in the

3). Accommodationists are people who often believe that the First Amendment only prohibits the government from creating a National Church and— everything else is permitted. They also often believe that there is no basis for the separation. The Separation of Church and State debunked this by stating that the states had struggled individually to preserve the peace in their religiously diverse populations (para. 4). The beliefs stated above are also refuted with the definition of federalism. Federalism unites states within a larger political framework, however, each state still has its own political integrity including how it deals with religion. The government was set up this way so there would be no concern of the federal government expanding its power over the states’ local governments. The states would not have allowed the government to control how religion is dealt with, even if it gave non-preferential aid. Non-preferential aid takes tax dollars to help the different churches around the county. Most people would not accept that. A Christian paying taxes would not be happy that their tax money went to support a Muslim church. The situation would be the same if it went the other way around.