Should Separation of Church and State be more Heavily Enforced? (US)

1. You show a lot of evidence that some founding fathers believed that there wasn"t even a difference, and that it wasn"t given much attention, but having that separation is protecting the public"s fundamental rights. However, they all weren"t like that. "The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." "John Adams, Founding Father "No religious reading, instruction or exercise, shall be prescribed or practiced [in the elementary schools] inconsistent with the tenets of any religious sect or denomination." "Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father "I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another." "Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are shown here to be openly against the idea of one religion being established over others. Also, many of our founding fathers were NOT Christian either. In fact, most of them were Protestants. It"s obvious that if you weren"t part of that group you wouldn"t want that group to rule. (I"m sorry for using Wikipedia D: ) "49 were Protestants, and two were Roman Catholics (D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons). Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 28 were Church of England (or Episcopalian, after the American Revolutionary War was won), eight were Presbyterians, seven were Congregationalists, two were Lutherans, two were Dutch Reformed, and two were Methodists. A few prominent Founding Fathers were anti-clerical Christians such as Thomas Jefferson,[19][20][21] who constructed the Jefferson Bible, and Benjamin Franklin. Others, notably Thomas Paine, who challenged institutionalized religion in The Age of Reason, were deists, or held beliefs very similar to those of deists." (Wikipedia.org) As you can see, they shared different belief systems and it would make no logical sense for them to want one religion to have power over others. Also while researching this, many of the most prominent founding fathers were very accepting of every form of belief or lack thereof. Not being in favor of the Separation of Church and State would contradict this, especially considering that not wanting it would be disrespectful towards others. 2. Well, that was certainly a thorough history lesson to say the least. The problem is, it doesn"t show any definite proof that we should not enforce it. There are a lot of things that were established at the time of our founding fathers that we are against today, such as slavery. It was considered a norm back then, so they didn"t think much of it. Similarly to minorities, other religions and Atheists were the minority that wasn"t thought much of at the time. Women were a minority too. There were countless laws made that had disadvantages these groups, and not enforcing the separation of Church and State would do the same. Simply because our founding father wrote it in doesn"t mean we have to stand by it forever. They allowed the laws to be flexible specifically because they knew that times would change, and so the laws would have to change with them. These days" people have a voice that is heard, so we can finally stand up against the injustices done to minorities. In this day and age, it is especially important to be inclusive with other groups since we are supposed to all have the right to life, liberty and property. We can"t live in the past, we need to work for today. These days" people are more accepting and value the liberty of others. 3. If religion and government were meant to mix, then we would probably be living in a theocracy and not a democracy. Even in the establishment of Jamestown, the people came here so that they could practice their beliefs freely without punishment. Not enforcing these rights would only lead to disastrous results. For example, would you want religion to be taught or enforced in schools? Most would say no. Children shouldn"t be indoctrinated at schools, especially since they are very impressionable. Parents would be outraged if they found out a teacher was trying to preach to students and converting them to a different religion. Allowing religion in school would allow teachers to do this, which is unfair to the parents to say the least. Even if you just wanted to teach religion as an informational subject and not as truth, it would still lead to other complications. Just teaching one religion would be biased, but there are hundreds if not thousands of religions that people belong to. That would be too much information to teach to a child. Also, there are some parents who wouldn"t want to teach their children any religion until they"re old enough to understand and comprehend it (like I would be if I had children.) Children are easily impressionable so they would just believe the first thing they hear. Some parents would want their children to logically figure things out for themselves instead of picking a religion "just because." Teaching, among almost all jobs, are secular jobs. They CANNOT have their personal beliefs conflict with the job otherwise they would not be able to properly do their duties. Kim Davis, for example, is a woman who violated her duty as a clerk who has to hand out marriage licenses. She refused to give gay couples their marriage licenses, even though it is in her job description. She was jailed for this, and rightfully so. It doesn"t matter what side you"re on with the gay marriage debate, she violated her duty as a clerk and has to receive punishment for not doing her job. If there is something in your job that goes against your religious beliefs, you shouldn"t use it as an excuse for not doing your job. Should a faith healer be allowed to become a doctor, then refuse to use legitimate medical practices because it goes against their beliefs? Should a Muslim be able to work at a supermarket, then refuse to touch the pork and alcohol? It doesn"t matter who you are and what you do, you have a duty to do your job and everything involved with it. If you don"t want to violate your beliefs, then go for a different job. You can"t say "I can do this job" then not complete it. Everyone has their job, so you need to do yours. I"ll cut this off before it gets too long. Thank you for reading, and I hope I get good responses. :D