Should church and state always be separate? Why or why not? What should the nature of their relationship be?
It is a sad day and age when it is valid that this question be asked.
The "wall of separation," as Jefferson once put it, between church and state is an integral part of our government. This wall goes two ways. It protects both the religious from being told how to practice their religion, and the nonreligious from being taxed to pay for a religion to which they don't adhere. Unfortunately, this wall has been and continues to be eroded away by those who use their own religion's particular notions of "faith," "god," and "morality" as authority to effect legislative change.
The United States was founded on religious freedom, and after 200+ years, this freedom is being taken sorely for granted. Those who supported SoCaS at this country's birth are the same ones who ignore it today. Our founders had the foresight to include the Establishment Clause in the Constitution for this very reason. This clause states that the government "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Today, groups of skeptics and freethinkers (including atheists, agnostics, etc.) seem to bear the torch of SoCaS more often than not, although it should be a virtue toward which we all strive. In fact, it is a common argument that proponents of religion (any religion) should be the first to object to it being used in public policy. In short, if you don't want the government to tell you how to worship, you should not use instruments of worship to tell the government how to govern.
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