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Church and State in the World |
| Section: CURRENT ISSUES / SPECIAL REPORT--A TEN COMMANDMENTS COUNTRY? |
| Author: Paul Marshall |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/2004 |
| Size: 2,095 Words, 14,027 Characters |
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Although Americans are fighting over the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance and the presence of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms, nearly all of them take pride in their country's commitment to religious freedom embodied in the opening words of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
The relation of church and state in the United States is unique, but it would be a mistake to think that other countries simply deny religious freedom or that they have nothing to teach us. In fact, the world's ways of relating religion to politics are bewilderingly diverse, endlessly complex, and theoretically challenging.
Theocracies
At one extreme are some Muslim countries where church and state...
. . .
...ould not cause us to slide into a secularism equally inimical to religious freedom. As liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said, we must avoid "preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe," or, as Justice Potter Stewart said, move to "the establishment of a religion of secularism." As world examples show, this would be another avenue to religious tyranny.
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