You are Wrong about the Separation of Church and State

This is for those of you out there that feel that either this country was founded on Christian Principles or that we ought to put God back in schools and the public sphere.

Pick up any history book. For centuries, religion has been co-opted by governments to help rule and control the people. Whether you are talking about Constantine I and Theodosius adopting Christianity for Rome, or the rise of Islamic Theocracy over the Shah's opposition in a previously secular Iran, whenever a country has adopted a "national religion", all other religions become marginalized, persecuted, and often abused. What's stunning, to me, about the current climate over the past 8 years here in America is why Christians would risk their religious freedom in attempting to turn America into a Christian Nation.

John Locke was one of the first philosophers to discuss the seperation between government and religion (this led directly to the French Revolution and was the philosophy the US was based upon). But I'd like to call out the great work of John Rawls and his idea of the "Original Position". To summarize, we as a society must make rules and social contracts without knowledge of how we each, as individuals, will benefit from these rules as opposed to others who may not benefit equally. This means making policy that does not favor one's own circumstances but, instead, benefits all. (this is a short summary. Read more on the great John Rawls here.)

With regard to religion, vocal Christians seem to feel that the wonderful benefits of Christianity ought to be something we foment in society to the exclusion of other religious, and secular, philosophies. But they seem to want these rules in place forgetting that in doing so, they put their own religion at risk in society. Simply put, if the government adopts a religious advocacy for one religion, that one religion may someday become marginalized if another religion becomes adopted. Would a Christian become a separation advocate if Islam became the prevailing government religion? Would they cry out "unfair!" or "Support Religious Freedom!!" all of a sudden? It's easy to attempt to de-secularize society when you are a majority. But as history has shown, governments adopt religions for many reasons and uses, and in doing so, some adherents to non-dominant religions end up tortured, dead, removed from society, etc.

What so many fail to see is that this secularism the Constitution calls for protects your religion! If you are someone whose beliefs align with the majority today, who is to say what will happen in 20 years? Look at the 1979 Iranian Revolution as a perfect example of the risks associated with Theocratic rule. Will you still want a de-secularized society if Judaism or Islam or Buddhism is chosen by those in power as the "State Church"? Of course there would be outcry from all Christian churches across this nation. "Keep Government Out of Religion!" The beauty of our system though, is that the government canNOT inhibit your religious expression or even the simple ability to gather together in a church without fear of attack, discrimination, etc. Once you remove this protect from our government, you put ALL religious freedoms at risk, including your own. These are the values our country was founded upon.

I hope this is clear to some of you. I wont talk now about the US being a "Christian" nation (there is ample evidence against this) or even the inherent hypocrisy in so many claims made to supplant a secular government. I sympathize with the desire to see one's own strongly-held beliefs become law (I'd love it if eating animals was illegal...but *my* right not to eat animals should not be considered higher than your rights to eat animals...even if my beliefs are religious in nature (many religions advocate levels of vegetarianism)), but living in a society that is inclusive, free, and varied requires us to protect our own freedoms AND THE FREEDOMS OF THOSE WE DISAGREE WITH. Else, as the Original Position teaches us, we may come to find our majority is a minority and that which we enacted into law becomes the shackles by which we are kept prisoner.

EDIT: Let me add this great discussion about the problems inherent in removing the separation between church and state. Please watch!