I received an email last week that is part of a growing trend in North America. It was about the separation of church and state and the decline in morals it has produced–or so the argument goes.
The email essentially argued a correlation exists between the Bible’s decline in society at large (no prayers in school, legalized abortion, homosexual marriage, etc.) and all the problems society now faces (terrorism, increased crime rates, pre-marital sex, etc.). This seems to me to be missing the point.
Separation of church and state is a concept enshrined in the American Constitution. The First Amendment reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This basically means the church cannot intervene in the workings of the government and vice versa. In Canada, this concept is not explicitly written anywhere in the Constitution, but is widely practiced as common law.
Over the summer, this topic has surfaced a few times. First there was the issue of the federal government’s proposal to legalize same-sex marriage, a passionate debate that will persist for a while. In the U.S., a recent decision to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from an Alabama government building has also sparked discussions about the role of the church in today’s society.
I believe a clear and distinct separation between church and state is a necessary part of a free and equal society that has no real correlation to our culture’s morals. We need a separation because not everybody in our society shares the same religious beliefs. Imposing a foreign belief system upon an individual is not fair, and does not treat people of various faiths as equals. In a democracy, no citizens can be more or less privileged than others if the system is to have any credibility or fairness.
It is also important to remember the flipside of the separation line of reasoning, namely that government cannot interfere with religious institutions. For example, if the government legalizes homosexual marriages, it has no mandate to force any church to perform them. Or, when the court in Alabama unanimously decided that the Ten Commandments monument was unconstitutional, this does not mean the commandments themselves are banned in any way.
The argument for the separation of church and state relies heavily upon the concept of personal freedom. We can believe whatever we want, and do whatever we want, as long as nobody else is hurt in the process.
If you want to live your life as a Christian, good for you. If you believe in the teachings of Islam, fine, go at it. If you don’t believe in any higher power, it doesn’t really affect me now does it?
To say society is going downhill because of the separation of church and state is a weak argument that denies personal responsibility. It is not up to the government to teach or impose beliefs upon their citizens, it is not up to anybody but the individuals themselves. If parents want to teach their children about the Ten Commandments, there is absolutely nothing stopping them. The same can be said about views on drug use, homosexual marriage or any other moral issue.
Give people the freedom to decide and let them live their lives as they see fit. Create a system where people are ultimately responsible for the consequences of their actions, and I’d say that sounds fair, equal and democratic.