Social Issue

Seperation of Church and State

The separation of church and state is a concept and philosophy in modern thought and practice in which the structures of state or national government are proposed as needing to be separate from those of religious institutions. The concept has long been a topic of political debate throughout history. In the United States, separation of church and state is governed by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and by legal precedents some quite controversial, interpreting that clause. The view that religious and state institutions should be separate is a wide spectrum ranging between, but not including the extremes which destroys the church and theocracy which absorbs the state into the function of the church.

The long-debated middle, between secular and religious government, is when the state directly supports a specific religious institution, founding the state's religion, or established church, on the powers of the government. The separation of church and state is related to freedom of religion, but the two concepts are different

and one should not infer hastily that countries with a state church do not necessarily have freedom of religion, nor should one infer that a country without a

state church necessarily enjoys freedom of religion. While there are many states that permit freedom of religious belief, none allow completely unrestricted freedom of religious practice.

I believe that if someone wants to pray in school that is their right as American but it is not there right to put their beliefs on me. I pray in school all the time and no one has ever said anything to me because when I pray I don't show it to people or flash it right in front of them so they really don't care. With the "One nation under God" thing if you don't want to say it you don't have too.