Separation Of Religion

Separation of religion or separation of the church is a common phrase in United States of America which has attracted hot debates and resulted to pending cases in court of law. Separation of religion is not just a mere principle but is a legal enactment in United States constitution. The idea behind this enactment was to separate the church and other denomination from state operations. However, as most people argue, the American government has never amendment or enacted law in preference to specific denomination or religion, a fact that most people seem not to have understood yet.

Religion and the First Amendment

Most Americans have been made to believe that the First Amendment to the constitution of United States needed a “wall of separation between the state and the religion or denomination.” Today, this concept has been hardly changed; however, it is neither any of the amendments nor the constitution part. It was until the late twentieth century when the phrase separation of the religion and state became famously recognized in the streets of United States.

Initially, especially during the first amendment of the United States constitution, it was stated that, the congress should not draft laws respecting establishment of a certain denomination or religion. The meaning of this statement was very to the American jurisprudence and American society for generations. Both the federal government and the national government were restricted from developing a state religion whereby people will be paying tax to support that denomination. Further, both governments had no right to interfere with the rights of people to worship.

The main intention of the first amendment of the United States constitution was not to protect people from denomination but to restrict the government from interfering with religion. The first amendment aimed at limiting the powers of the federal government so as to protect the rights and freedom of worship of the people. The amendment declared what the federal government could do and what could not do.

Separation of Religion in Other Nations

The concept of separation of religion has as well been adopted in several nations around the globe. However, the degree of separation varies from one nation to another depending on the prevalent views toward and legal structures of such governments. For instance a similar but classically stricter principle has been used in Turkey and France, while other countries which are socially secular like United Kingdom and Denmark have kept a legally recognized state denomination.