Good Essay About God In America: Six: Of God And Caesar

Despite the declared principles of secularism the politics and religion have always been interconnected in the USA. By means of the politicians, the churches may pursue their interests and promote their ideas around the USA. In turn the politicians may gain support from the large number of people if they align their policies with the people’s religious beliefs. For example, the conservative evangelists had always been far from politics, but they cooperated with Ronald Reagan, because they thought he would be able to prohibit abortion and address some other controversial problems. What is more, they started to participate in the political process and social activism at the local level in order to react to the societal changes that took place during and after the war in Vietnam. Francis Schaefer was a popular figure that promoted the principles of Christianity in the USA.
However, the conservative evangelists failed to reach their strategic goals and became too arrogant and straight-forward. As the result there were many counter-movements that opposed this and other conservative churches. Ted Kennedy was one of the politicians that criticized the direct cooperation between the government and the church, because such cooperation limited the rights of many U.S. citizens. This view became very popular later at the beginning of the XXI century. Even George W. Bush, who was supported by the conservative Republicans, tried to reach out to as many people as possible. For example, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks he communicated with the leaders of the Muslim confession in the USA in order to show that the government could see the difference between the Muslim people and the Islamists and that the Muslim people were welcome in the USA. In addition, there are many new popular church movements that were created either by the immigrants or the Americans and they also have some influence on the American society.
The democratic politicians do not rely on the religious voters as much as the Republican politicians. For example, John Kerry lost to George Bush, because his strategy on the issues that concerned religion was very weak in comparison with the one that was applied by Bush. When Barack Obama became the next U.S. president he said that for him it was important that the USA provided the equal rights to all churches and the opinion of the religious organizations still mattered for the further development of the country. So the struggle for the religious liberty continues in the USA and it is impossible to say that the government and the religion are completely separated. The churches are not only focused on such issues as the fight against abortions and homosexuality. Now they are very active in addressing the other problems including poverty, HIV/AIDS, etc. in the USA and abroad.