Many conservative evangelicals act as though the separation of church and state is ultimately a loss for Christianity because it is no longer endorsed or enforced by the state. This, however, is a mistake: separating church and state benefits everyone, including Christians.

Cynthia Tucker writes at Working for Change:

[T]here is something worse, much worse, than the collapse of the traditional family: the collapse of civil society itself. Doesn't the prospect of stoning a woman to death for adultery, as nearly happened recently in Nigeria, suggest the horror of a state where religious law rules? ... It is not just the liberty of Jews and Muslims and Hindus that would be trampled by Moore's "Christian nation." So would the religious liberty of millions of Christians who don't accept his theology, including myself. I would be forced to bow to prayers that make me uncomfortable, to salute commandments I consider wretchedly antiquated, ... and to condemn good friends.

It's a shame that some conservative evangelicals are so consumed by their religious ideology that they not only refuse to consider the feelings of non-Christians, but even the feelings of other Christians become completely irrelevant. All that matters to them is that the power of the government be brought to bear in defense of their particular religious beliefs, period. Everyone else can convert or suffer.

Read More:

• Religious Right
• Christian Nationalism
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry
• Separation of Church and State 101
• Ten Commandments