It's common for people to argue that a strict separation of church and state, under which the government is not permitted to endorse and support religion, is actually a form of hostility towards religion. Not only is this completely false, the consequences of strict separation are exactly the opposite: when the state supports religion, it generally leads to more widespread hostility towards religion.

Alan M. Dershowitz writes in the Fall 2000 issue of Free Inquiry:

The successful status of American religion is to be contrasted with the sorry state of religion throughout most of Europe. When my family and I travel to Europe, we love to visit the old churches — not for prayer, but for artistic appreciation. Our favorite time to observe a church is on Sunday morning, when it is being used as intended. In recent years, we have seen fewer and fewer parishioners in churches throughout England, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain — except, of course, on special occasions.

It is no coincidence, in my view, that organized religion is thriving in America and dying in much of Europe. The separation of church and state is good for religion. When church and state merge, the natural antagonism that citizens feel toward their government carries over to the church.

Moreover, when the state tries to enforce religious practices, enmity is generated. Witness Israel, a country that I visit frequently. Because the mechanisms of the state are employed in support of Orthodox Judaism, a sharp division has developed between the community and the vast majority of secular Jews. Many secular Jews feel strongly that their freedoms have been impinged on, not only by Orthodox Judaism, but by the state as well. Today there is more anti-Orthodox feeling in Israel than in any other part of the world.

Christian Nationalists who seek greater state support for their religion don't seem to realize just how negative the consequence of such support can be. It's likely that their form of conservative evangelical Christianity wouldn’t even have developed in America if it hadn't been for the failure of states to become as involved with church matters as was common in Europe at the time — church/state separation may not have been strict, but it was still great enough to allow for innovation, dissent, and diversity.

The state support for their religion which Christian Nationalists seek would probably appear to help in the short term, but over the long term dissatisfaction and anger with the government would inevitably get transferred to the Christian churches as well. At the same time, any dissatisfaction people have with their churches would get transferred to the government, too. That's not a situation which benefits either side.

 

Separation of Church & State:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Secularism 101
• What is the Separation of Church and State?
• Religion's Place in the Public Square
• Myths About Church/State Separation
• Church and State News
• Church & State Polls