SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

Separation of church and state

Introduction

Religion is one of the most important aspects of one's life. Everyone no matter to which religion they belong but they remain very sensitive about their religion. This issue becomes even more sensitive if it begins to involve such powerful entity as government. One such concept is of separation of church and state. Separation of church and state means that religious institutions would not get involved in government matters and government would not interfere in that affairs of religious institutions. This paper explores history and origin of separation of church and state in United States of America and various events and effects that it caused in United Sates of America over the period of time.

General overview

The concept of separation of state and church gave rise to scores of new practices. These new practices include secularism, removal of church and the ideology that suggests that the government would be a subsidiary of the church. Some school of thoughts believes that the state should be apart from religion and religious institutions should not go pry in the affair of the state. Those who believe that demands that churches should exercise their authority without any involvement of and approval of the government. (Lohnert, 2009)

A state under secularism does not depend on any sort of religious institutions. A government under secularism does not seek support of religious institutions to justify its authority. There are some governments under secularism system these governments seek approval and support of religious institutions for continuation of their government. Sometimes under this system, government makes use of these religious institutions to promote and give rise to the general welfare. When a government seeks support of any religious institution it is mandatory that it should not approve or promote any of their religious beliefs. This system is known as civil religion. (Hamburger, 2002)

To handle this issue some countries use a hybrid system. This hybrid system provides a middle way it is a compromise between a government under secularism and religion. Under hybrid system a government supports religious institutions. For instance the government support specific religious institutions by paying salaries of religious leaders and scholars, it promotes religious institutions and it provides funds for religious education in various educational institutes of the state. (Lohnert, 2009)

A religion is imposed on a state under the system of theocracy. Under this system, religious institutions have authority and these institutions are real government. Religious laws dictated by religious institutions help government in devising and formulating policies.

The phenomena of separation of church and state are akin to freedom of religion but these two are different concepts. For instance a country under theocracy system , citizens have full freedom of religion, on the other hand, countries that do not have their official religion, citizens of this country usually do not have freedom to practice their religion.

Many countries allow their citizens to practice their religion but there is no country that allows its citizens to practice their religion without any restriction and check. Certain national laws also bound government to not to allow its citizens to practice religion without ant limitation. For example some countries do not allow its citizens to indulge in drugs ...