The Christian Church of England is the established church. There is no separation of Church and state, although there is a separation of powers of legislature, executive and judiciary - the church has appointees in the legislative and executive branch of government.\n\nThe US has a "stated" separation of church and state with no established church. It also has similar separation of powers with no overt religious involvement.\n\nHowever, religion (predominantly Christian) traumatizes debate in the US - from abortion to gay marriage. Whilst these issues are strong in the Uk the religious basis for the debate is less perceptible.\n\nIs it just that the US is more juvenile in the way that it conducts discussion of these issues? Or is religion too powerful an interest and lobbying group? I don't think the UK is right and the US is wrong, but the UK seems more mature in the way it conducts these debates.\n\nI'd be interested in any perspective.
138643
Christianity in the United States is mostly devoid of the historical setting of Europe.  It tends to be shallow and focus on the externals rather than the interior life.  If it didn't, revivals wouldn't be so important here.  A European Protestant and an American Protestant are completely different animals.  The Anglican Communion is suffering through an heretical American Church that lacks the premises the Europeans enjoy.  The Lutheran Church in Europe probably wouldn't really recognize the Americans except loosely and all the others would be afraid of the Americans.  We do tend to be wacky.\n\nAmericans also are difficult as a people.  In the UK, loss of popular support results in the end of the government and new elections.  In the US, you can't fix mistakes easily or quickly so the role of popular power is different.  Elections occur at fixed intervals rather than when support disappears.  Likewise, because the Church is part of the organs of the state, it does not need to jockey for power as it does in the US.  If an evangelical minister wants to change something, they have to marshal a lot of power outside their own adherents.  This pushes religion into politics in a way that has nothing to do with morals or faith and everything to do with raw power.\n\nBecause education is of a lower quality in America, you have more juvenile discussions on religion.  Most Americans cannot tell you where Miami is.  A television show ran a petition here to end the woman's right to vote and only one potential signer realized what "woman's suffrage," was and got upset.  A majority of Americans, when asked if they would support amendments eliminating freedoms of speech, the press, fair and speedy trial and jury trial were for it when the phrasing was done in affirming ways.  For example, would you be for an amendment that prohibited people from saying "xxxx".  "Should the press be restricted to protect the government from...xxxx?"  "Should criminals be permitted to ...xxxx at trial?"\n\nRead the Yahoo! religion message boards and you will see the difference in literacy.  Most American "bible based" churches use little scripture compared to a Catholic or Anglican Church service, yet they cannot see the issue at all.  Everything that Luther could have feared about the Reformation is alive and well in the US.  Had he been able to look into the future and only seen US Protestantism, he would have burned the 95 Thesis.\n\nThe evolution debate in the US isn't is evolution opposed to Christianity.  It is really, although not stated, is evolution opposed to sola scriptura in extremis.
610264
The United states was NOT founded on christian principles. George Washington, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson , to name a few, were Deists. " As the Government of the United States, is not, in any sense, founded on the christian religion" Treaty of Tripoli 1796. Read before and passed unanimously by the US  Senate. The founders wanted the wall between church and state  because of religious persecution.  They thought no one religion should be able to use the government to force their views on we the people. John Adams wanted it because he didn't want the government to corrupt religion and Thomas Jefferson didn't want religion to corrupt government. It seems they where both right. But alas this debate will go on forever.
612869
lol...\n\nChristianity is the predominate religion in the US, the friggin country was founded by Christan's and the only people that see Christan's being persecuted are Christan's....\n\ntheir biggest issue, not that they would EVER admit to it, is that Christianity is NOT as popular as it use to be...
339174
You might do well to remember that the USA was founded on the separation of church and state.\nRemember this famous quote; "Freedom can be measured by the distance between the state and the church."
189879
The first amendment guarantees freedom of religion.  A politician has the right to freely talk about the Ten Commandments.\n\nThe Constitution does not ANYWHERE separate church and state.  It just says not to have a state-run church, referring to the Church of England situation.\n\nThe Constitution is one of the most misinterpreted documents........
339011
The Cousins Wars, by Kevin Phillips. \nCovers the English Civil War, the Stuarts, the Glorious Revolution\nand on into the Revolutionary, War of 1812 American Civil War. \n\nPart of the reason why we HAD a separation between church and state has to do with the aversion many of the English colonists had with any kind of state sponsored religion and especially so if it is paired with a monarchy - in in particular a European monarchy.
538450
This is a very good point, and i have actually researched it before.  In the Freedom of Religion amendment, there are two clauses: the establishment clause, and the free excercise clause.  The establishment clause is the separation of church and state, or in other words, the government cannot establish or promote any one relgion.  In the free excercise clause, the government cannot ban any one religion.  Oddly enough, atheism is only considered a religion in the free excercise clause, and not in the establishment clause.  This is a sort of loophole that allows the religion to establish atheism in schools, without going against our rights to freedom of religion.  Pretty messed up, huh?
549143
You infer correctly, and bravo for pointing this out.  People insist on it because that is what they want to believe, whether it is true or not.  They will insist that this is a "Christian" country, simply because Christianity is the main religion of the people.  In reality that doesn't mean squat to our Constitutional principles or freedoms.  If the founders wished to create a Christian nation they had the perfect opportunity to do so.  They chose instead to create a democratic republic in which religion has no say.  This fact gets conveniently ignored by fanatical Christians who think they automatically have the right to run everyone's lives.  They'll quote scripture as though it is civil law, but have little clue what the meaning of separation of church and state is at all.  Better education in our schools could help dissolve their ridiculous notion.\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\nAce?  For every quotation from a founder supporting the role of religion in government, I can produce two from the same founder speaking against it.  This debate went on for quite some time and the founders wrote and spoke about both sides of it extensively.  The proof in the pudding is that they had a chance to install a theocracy and chose not to do so.  They chose to keep that distance between church and state in the end.  How can you even argue with that when they didn't take the opportunity to create a theocracy?
102255
The US is not a Christian country. George Washington & John Adams (remember them?), in a diplomatic message to Malta, said "The United States is in no way founded upon the Christian religion." \n\nThat being said, the majority of the US government is Christian, as well as the majority of the US populus. Laws that are written based on their religious convictions blur the line between Church and State, and many time, cross it.\n\nMy ancestors (I am a Mayflower descendant) came to this country in 1620 to escape state-imposed religion. The fundi-Christians are trying hard to impose one on us now. This is being allowed to happen because the Congress, Senate, and Executive Branch are controlled by psuedo-Christians, and most of the people who put them there are psuedo-Christians.
296035
You don't say! I'm greek too and I totally agree with you. But in our country there is a huge misconception of the church's role throughout history. It is thought to be one of the nation's "saviours" during the "Greek Independence". Of course that never happened, but it's a big discussion...I'll just confine myself to say that greek state and church MUST be separated, but I'm afraid that this won't ever happen...The Church is a very strong lobby and even worse it has an intimate relationship with the present government. State and Church share the same interests...Τόσο απλά.
639121
If my history lessons and further study of history are correct the US is a secular nation and its founders believed that no religion should be put above any other religion. Quite the foresight if I might say as they put this provision into the Constitution to protect the country from the various sects of christianity not the various religions in the world. The controversy you state is only a controversy in your head as I could care less about your religion. However, if any religion tries to usurp the US Constitution it is within the rights of any one to question and eventually put a halt to their actions. Christians have no more rights nor less rights than anyone else. So, if you see a problem with someone who doesn't share your religious views you have not read the first amendment properly. Get over it.
219875
I agree there's more openness in the UK than in the US to this respect. Still, I haven't seen ANY person of immigrants descent in key official postions in the UK; while in the US there are MANY: Scwartzenegger, Villarraigosa, Kissinger. So who's more open-minded? And OF COURSE there's FREEDOM OF RELIGION in the US!! The US, being a traditionally Protestant nation, homes a greater Muslim population than many european nations do combined. Plus, the 20 million or so LatinAmerican immigrants are mostly roman-catholic, and free to practice their religion.
173030
I have nothing against same-sex marriages. I think it's really stupid how the government is not allowing it in the US. We have the freedom of religion. Wouldn't that mean that we have the freedom to choose what sex our marriage partner is? This topic is purely religious, and what happened to "seperation of church and state"? For the land of the free, there are a lot of useless things restricting our freedom.
476194
Separation of church and state is important.  We have freedom of religion.  If we start legislating religious doctrine into law then we WON'T be free to practice whatever faith resonates with us and we won't be free to be WITHOUT belief in any and/or all faiths.\n\nForcing people to accept some particular idea or adhere to behavioral standards from someone else’s religion means that their religious freedom is being infringed upon.\n\nAlso, the United States is not in the business of legislating based on morality ALONE.  As former Justice O'Connor once said in a ruling that struck down morality based sodomy laws: "A law branding one class of persons as criminal solely based on the State’s moral disapproval of that class and the conduct associated with that class runs contrary to the values of the Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause, under any standard of review".
634189
Honestly, I would not be opposed to our govrnment basing many of its policies on the teachings of Jesus Christ. The problem is is that these "Christians" have very little of Christ about them and their actions. Therein lies the real problem.\n\nThink about it, for a minute. Christ's teachings are quite secular for the most part. It's when people who believe that they are the only ones who know how God thinks and what God and Jesus REALLY meant deciding that their interpretaion is the only Ture & Correct Version and try impose that on the rest of that I have a huge problem with.
571106
I really do not believe you can separate the church and the state. People are part of the state and they are also members of their respective churches. \n\nJust go to a church whose beliefs and teachings you are most comfortable with.
19127
Yes, but I don't think it is due to a lack of religion or the devil walking in our midst. In fact it should not have anything to do with religion as there should be a seperation of church and state. Which is not to insinuate that there is anything wrong with religion except that our goverment attempts to limit the power of factions for domestic security. I could care less what people do in their private lives it doesn't carry over to the public arena. I don't agree with the motives to follow but the US could fall as our economy is a source of security. Since WWII we have been economically dominant yet, our economic superpower is waning as various economies around the world are becoming stronger and challenging America. America will become more desperate to try and keep its self secure on many fronts therefore becoming overextended.