Has religion been marginalized from the public and civic spheres?
According to laws, the lawmakers of our country have been discouraged from passing amendments that concern religion .This is seen in the first amendment which states that the congress shall make no law respecting an establishment on religion ,or prohibit the free exercise thereof (Novak 304). President Jefferson shows that the state and the church were intended to be separate bodies. Although it is not written in the constitution it carries a lot of weight in that it declared that the American government would not have a national church.
This is a direct indication that religion has been marginalized. At this time America was governed by leaders who were all religious (Religion and Americas founding 96). A problem arose because the country could only be represented by one religion .This was difficult to determine since various churches wanted to be represented in the American State. The only easy way of avoiding this problem was by refusing to acknowledge any religion .This later led to the implications that the leaders wanted to separate the government from the state.
The availability of the word in God we trust on our currency and the mention of God in the National Pledge is an indication that the state acknowledges the presence of God and church as an important factor in the governing of the country(Religion and Americas founding 97) .The importance of the church can be seen through the inauguration of the President who takes an oath in front of the American people as he holds the Bible .This shows that the state is actually requires religious procedures to function .It also shows that the role of religion is being down played as a means of separating the state from the church. (Religion and Americas founding 111).
The American governments refusal of the practice of religion in public places such as schools, offices e.t.c has marginalized the practice religion .This has also denied people the right of public speech seeing as they are not allowed to share their religious views with their neighbors.
Is our present-day notion of the “separation of church and state” at odds with the Founders’ vision of the role of religion in our democratic republic?
The separation of the state and the church, suggests that the state shall not be defined by any church. This also means that the choice of religion was a personal choice. For this to be implemented, the government had to remove the study of various religions in our schools .This was meant to create an equal ground in the schools regarding cases of religion(Novak 309). This would also remove the religious differences that are common between people who follow different creeds.
One of the reasons that support the separation was to prevent the state from controlling the church vice versa (Novak 309). The church and the state are bodies that should work together .The church is used for establishing a moral backbone for the society .The church should also be able to give opinions on state affairs .If the leaders were religious they would have acknowledged this .
Members of the church have been known to interfere with the state affairs .Although they should be given a chance to give their opinion they should not be allowed to overstep their boundaries .The American government has used this an excuse for separating both bodies (Novak 308).The government should have set up some laws that check the degree of the involvement of the church in politics.
Do our present conditions demand this separation?
The intentions of the government to separate the state from religion were ideal. The idea was to create unity amongst people of all religions by removing religion as one of the factors of identity of American citizens (Novak 310). Religion is very important in our society; we use the teachings of our religion to determine what is good and what is bad. The same can be applied for determining what’s wrong and right .With the government’s removal of religion as a foundation of the upbringing of a child, the country has lost its way. Most of the children in our society do not have values, the way in which the children are brought up is an indication of that our parents need to instill religious values into the upbringing or our children. Denying people the right to practice religion in our schools is creates enemity instead of unity (Religion and Americas founding 99).If people were to share their beliefs with their friends and neighbors, we would all be educated about different religions .Education of people about our beliefs answers questions that may have been controversial and uncomfortable to talk about .This would bring about respect between people of deferent religions and beliefs.
The founding fathers attitudes towards the separation of the church and the state
The article shows that all the leaders valued religion in one way or another. The fact that the leader’s belonged to different religions played a big part in this decision. The separation the state from the church therefore was made on political grounds so as to prevent enemity among the different religious denominations in the country. The separation of the church and the state is not entirely possible since the church is important in most of the state ceremonies, pledge, the national currency and official state documents. (Religion and Americas founding 97)
America was founded on principles which have religious backgrounds. This is another indication that religion is important in the governing of the country. These principles further demonstrate the reliance of the State on religion. Despite this the country encourages the need to observe religious liberty which involves non interference with religious issues .The country may have misinterpreted the intentions of our founders .By abandoning the religious bodies that guide us, we have forgotten the original intention intended by our founding fathers .which has however encourage the increase of social evils that is happening in the country today.
Conclusion
Religion is a very controversial factor in our society, like most countries America’s foundation is based on religious principles. The decision by our founding fathers to separate the state from the country was intended so as to govern the country without prejudice .This may have been a good intention which turned out to be bitter sweet.
References
Novak, Michael. “Faith and the American foundation: Illustrating Religions Influence. “Religeon and founding page. 304-360.Print.
“Religion and Americas founding. “The founders ,founding and Religion .Chapter four .96-112
