And reason with me, for a few hundred words, about religion and government. For a moment I'd like you to forget about the Constitution, about original intent, about case law and about the Supreme Court. Government is a necessary evil. Because we are not yet a collection of responsible individuals, we need government. We extend to it a portion of our natural right of self defense and allow government to use force to punish us for physically harming each other.
Coercion is government's lone unique quality.
But the sword is a seductive device. Many ambitious humans who do not possess the skill or the patience to lead free people by consent have succumbed to the shortcut of force. To say yes, we have to argue that people can be forced to save themselves through a path of someone else's choosing or that, without the prop of government, religion would die out among us. Both assertions are patently untrue. By definition, salvation must be accepted, embraced, believed.