Why I Favor Separation of Church and State

The grand experiment a band of radical lawyers and highly educated businessmen started 230 years ago has had its twists and turns over the years. The Religious Right has asserted, variously, that we are a Christian nation--nothing could be more deceptive, as well as incorrect.

Those whom we collectively call The Founding Fathers knew much of history and saw the base injustices that could be perpetuated in society without a wall of strict separation between church and state. They could look back a few hundred years and see, for example, the Spanish Inquisition.

Particularly, they had in mind the example of Oliver Cromwell's Puritanical military dictatorship, the century before, which had accomplished little more than the re-establishment of the monarchy. They realized that Cromwell's effective iron-fisted rule, no matter how well-intentioned had failed because of the Lord Protector's justification of his actions by constant reference to a Providential God which always happened to agree with him.

This is not to say that strict separation between church and state is an easy thing. Indeed, it will always exist in terms of artifice rather than established precedent. In a Democracy, as in all forms of government, when the shit hits the fan, so to speak, people will reach for religion as a means to supplant their base insecurities. Challenges, then, in times of crisis will always prove problematic. As has been the case quite recently.

We currently have a recovered alcoholic President who sees the world in black and white terms. You are either purely evil (against us) or purely good (with us). He sees no grey area in between. This has proven to be the undoing of many a leader, of which Cromwell is a notable example.

The right will, by its very nature, have a tendency to think more communally than individually. But America is a nation created by individuals--yes, even LIBERAL, individuals. That is its intention and its focus. The challenge for those of us on the left is to incorporate the communal nature of the right without resorting to its excesses.

The left, post 1968 or so, has fallen prey to a heavily niched, post-modern dilemma that has only subdivided its ranks and created massive unintentional disenfranchisement. It has divided like some cancerous cell, unwilling or unable to stop itself.

I would safely make the argument that most Americans are conservatives by nature, but they have underlying liberal beliefs. We are suspicious of radicalism and rampant taxation. But we on the left must take this into account when we make our own arguments--we must not appear too radical in our viewpoints, else we fall into the same trap as Jacobian France.

We must not refuse to acknowledge the importance of religion and faith in the lives of all. Yet, we on the left must be more open regarding our beliefs, else we find ourselves being stereotyped as "Godless", demonic, nihilistic, et al by our friends on the right.

I'm a southern by birth as well as by residence. Visitors here often find it quite disconcerting how open displays of religion are down here. They find it most discomforting how much religion, particularly Christian religion, are incorporated into daily life. Yet, I had one displaced Northerner express a sort of relief at the openness of religious expression--she found it freeing rather than restricting.

So thus, PRIVATE expression of religion should be seen as a great virtue, forward thinking sort of paradigm. Not the opposite as might be assumed.

Still, getting back to the point, religion has no right into the jurisdiction of state. It has often been cited as justification for many American wars, the current Iraq conflict not the least of the examples. Many throughout history have found it ironic that a radical, leftist rabbi prophet named Jesus of Nazareth has been used in such a manner.

It is easy to get into a semantical argument--wondering whether the words and deeds and intent of the Founding Fathers still have resonance and relevance to the present day. Despite the fact that the population of this country has dramatically swelled since that point and we have moved into an information based economy, we should continue to view with GREAT suspicion and fear any and all attempts to incorporate church with state. It is a fight, but a just one.