First, sorry if this has been covered, but the search feature is so slow I’m gonna just start a new thread.
A friend of mine and I have frequent debates over the separation of church and state in the U.S. I contend that gov’t and religion serve two vastly different purposes and should be utterly separated: let everyone practice their own form of religion, and let the gov’t run the country but stay out of enforcing morality. (And I mean just that – morality, not laws, which ARE the government’s job.)
He believes this is a Christian nation, founded by Christians for Christians based on Judaeo-Christian beliefs, and that the Constitution merely prohibits the establishment of any single particular religion as being the country’s official religion. In other words, he has no trouble with God being in the pledge of allegiance (I do), or with the Ten Commandments sitting in a state courtroom (I have problems with that, too, obviously).
How much of the concept of “separation of church and state” is really obvious in the Constitution, and how much of it is just modern interpretation? Are my desires for true separation between the two really in contrast with the founders’ intentions?