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Separation of Church and State?

16 Votes
  • Start Date:
    6-25-2008
  • Last Vote:
    8-19-2008

Description:

Should religous beliefs and worship history be taken into account when deciding on a President of this great nation? Was Jefferson was wrong in drawing a dividing line between church and state?

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"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."  - Thomas Jefferson in 1802

 

 

75%
I agree with Jefferson. Seperation of church and state is essential to government.
25%
I disagree with Tefferson. I feel that religion should play a major part in government.
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Forum Discussion for Separation of Church and State?
Submitted by Airplane Daddy A. at MySpace on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 11:43

Who cares how long Christianity has been around anyway? If you want to make that argument, there are older religions. Ever heard of Hindu? But that's beside the point. It has nothing to do with Jefferson being right to make a separation of Church and State. And just to set the record straight, IT IS IN THE CONSTITUTION NUMBNUTS. When I was a kid I used to sit around and read encyclopedias(I know I'm a dork). I read parts of the constitution, and that was one of the parts I went over.
In any case, separation of Church and State IS correct because it gives people the freedom to practice whatever beliefs they wish, without fear of being persecuted for it by the government. Aside from that, my own personal view is that religion and morality are not necesarily State matters anyway. State matters are law, safety, economy, and so on. Moral issues rightfully belong with the churches, and the individual people.

The next time you want to go on a tirade Pat, get your info straight, and think about if what you're saying actually has ANYTHING to do with the topic under disscussion.

Submitted by Pat G. on Wed, 07/02/2008 - 13:56

Jefferson's quote is total taken out of context. He sent this letter to a church that was asking for his help on a matter. He was worried about one of the other denominations of Christianity getting angry that he was helping out a different form of Christianity. If you read other Jefferson writings he was a religious man and talked about the creator. There is nothing in the constitution that states there should be a separation of church and state only that the government should not establish a religion. Sorry to tell you Christianity goes back further than our countries start so it wasn’t created here. As for the “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” it’s pretty clear how that is approached today. The founding fathers were all religious men and would be appalled at what goes on in this country today.

Submitted by Andrew N. on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 14:06

Can you detail how this is out of context? If you know it or not, you are actually proving my point. What you are saying is absolutely true about Jefferson, most of the founding fathers were very religious. However, they had the good sense to not play favorites and refuse to combine personal beliefs with operation of government. Hence, Jefferson's quote above as an example.

Clearly, the constitution does not allow government establishment of religion to keep government and religion divided, and to provide religious freedom. That means all the major religions, not just Christianity - are on equal ground.

I'm not sure why the historical correction on where christianity goes back to was made. I was not speaking along those lines.

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