Re: Separation of church and state?
If we look back in history,say about 25 years,we see an interesting thing happening in the USA.The Religious Right or Moral Majority or whatever catchy name they gave themselves started with a well orchestrated grassroots program to take over the republican party.It started in small towns where the activists started flooding the town meetings and dragging them out until most others left.Then they would vote on ordinances and the like.Next, when elections came,leaflets were distributed in the church parking lots,telling the church attending people which candidate was God fearing and which ones they should not vote for.Note here that it was not the clergy telling anybody what to do,just in case that this would endanger the tax free status of the churches.Through this sort of activism more and more religious activists were voted into local councils and slowly they penetrated so far into the power structure of the republican party that many secular republicans were pushed into the background or left the party.Today it has come to the point that the religious right with its well organized electorate is almost running the republican party and wo unto the politician who does not pander to their wishes.He may be blacklisted as not enough God fearing and may very well loose his chance at re-election.<br />In my opinion there is official seperation,but in reality we see the republican party more and more dominated by conservative christian groups who are constantly trying to insert more and more church influence into the government.<br />If you think that this is hogwash,then please explain to me why at election time every politician is going to church accompanied by lots of cameras,or why Bush, at the beginning of his first term, came up with a plan to let religious groups participate in administering social service moneys.
