Term Paper on The Relationship
between Politics and Religion
Religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less
they are mixed together. The Constitution guarantees freedom of
religion, not freedom from religion. We are experiencing a powerful
resurgence of religion in private, public, and political life. In
great measure the growing tide of religion in America is a response
to an alleged moral breakdown in our society, for which religion is
invoked as the antidote. There are dangers in the unreflective
embrace of religion. While religion is often a force for good,
Americans seem to be blind to the reality that religion has been an
agent of history' s greatest acts of intolerance, persecution, and
bloodshed.
In its unique ability to invoke absolutisms to sanction behavior of
the most xenophobic kind, religion, when fueled by the power of the
state, often turns malignant.
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It is with that historical recognition
in mind that the fathers of our Constitution wisely drafted the
establishment clause the First Amendment, which creates a wall of
separation between church and state. Though it hasn't received media
attention, behind the thrust to inject religion into public life are
competing interpretations of the establishment clause. The intent of
the framers of the Constitution was that the state could not
establish a national church. It could not favor one religion over
another, nor could it support religion in any way. In other words,
our government must be secular and neutral between religion and
non-religion.
“Despite doctrinal differences,
Catholics, Prot
estants, and Anabaptists internalized
a basic New Testament theme: discipleship can be costly and may even
be fatal. Those who pay the price embody the ultimate imitation of
Christ and gain an imperishable heavenly reward.” (Colish)
It is claimed by some that those who
want to retain the wall of separation, and reject government support
of religion, are anti-religious. Quite the contrary, we hold with
Madison that when government and religion are mixed, both become
corrupted. Governmental support of religion is an act of spiritual
desperation. Religion should not need the support of the state to
prop it up. Such support trivializes religion. The greatest source
of violence in the world today is religious nationalism -- the
unholy alliance that brings together religious impulses with the
massive power of political movements and the state. It is this
tragic alliance that is bringing violence and death in Iran, the
Balkans, Sudan, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Israel, and
Northern Ireland, among others. Yet in this country, we are rushing
headlong to create that wicked and poisonous brew, as if we can be
so confident that we will escape the fate that historically, and
once again, has engulfed the world in divisiveness, violence, and
war.
Works Cited
Colish, Marcia Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual
Tradition 400-1400 (Yale University Press)
Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks Translation by Lewis Thorpe
Penguin Books, NY, 1974
M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Longhaired Kings (Methuen, 1962)
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