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The separation of church and state is a concept in law whereby the structures of state or national government are kept separate from those of religious institutions. The concept has long been a topic of political debate. Its opponents are usually called theocrats, and in places where there is an established church or state religion, their political position is sometimes called antidisestablishmentarianism. A related topic is civil religion.

The separation of church and state is related to freedom of religion, but the two concepts are different and one should not infer hastily that countries with a state church do not necessarily have freedom of religion, nor should one infer that a country without a state church necessarily enjoys freedom of religion.

1 Motivations

There are a number of proposed reasons to support a separation of church and state:

The rights of the minority have historically been violated by the rights of the majority. Members of a non-majority religion often find themselves persecuted, socially shunned, and harassed.

The church might harm the state. For example, religious conviction might cause the state to become involved in a disastrous war, or to remain pacific when force is necessary for the preservation of the state. It may also influence public policies in a manner detrimental to those who do not follow all the church's teachings; for instance, a ban on homosexual activity (see sodomy law) or abortion, decided for religious reasons, harms those who feel they have the right to such practices. In addition, religious conviction may make political debate difficult, it being impossible to contradict arguments which, essentially, arise from personal faithThis article discusses faith in a religious context. For other uses, see faith (disambiguation). The best starting point, before digging into subjective human associations with the heavily-loaded word, is reviewing the very simple dictionary definitions o. Granting them official status allows politicians to use religion as an argument of authority .

The state might harm the church. For example, the state might dictate a religious ceremonyA ceremony is an activity, infused with ritual significance, performed on a certain occasion. For example, the Japanese tea ceremony was frequently held as a ritual of hospitality at the arrival of a guest. Traditionally, a ceremony may mark a rite of pas that the church's dogmaThis article is on dogma in religion. Other uses of Dogma are at dogma (disambiguation Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas is belief or doctrine held by a religion or any kind of organization to be authoritative or beyond question. Evidence, ana declares is wrongThis page is about sin in the context of religion. For other meanings, see Sin (disambiguation Sin has always been a term most usually used in a religious context, and today describes any lack of conformity to the will of God; especially, any willful disr; or, the state may force the participation of religious people in some aspect of civic life in a manner that offends their religious convictions and offends their conscience; or, the state may discriminate in favor of one church and against members of other churches.

2 Secularism and theocracy

A commonly advocated position is that the government should be a secularThis article concerns secularism the exclusion of religion and supernatural beliefs. For other forms of being secular and perspective on the terminology underlying the word "secularism", see secularity. Secularism means: in philosophy, the belief that one institution; that is, have no state religion, have no legislation that outlaws or favors one religion over another, and have no religiously motivated regulations on the eligibility of the nation's politicianA politician is an individual involved in politics, sometimes this may include political scientists. In other settings, a politician is a type of political figure who participates in a government. In Western democracies, the term is generally restricted ts. A secular state has no power over the nation's churches and the nation's churches have no political powers over the members of the government. A related notion is the FrenchThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. laïcité.

Many Western democratic nations place a high importance on the separation of church and state. Some nations, such as the United States of America and Canada, even have specific clauses in their constitutions which are widely interpreted as forbidding the government from favoring one religion over another.

Other democracies, such as Argentina or the United Kingdom, have a distinction between church and state which is slightly more blurred. These nations have a constitutionally established state religion, but are inclusive of citizens of other faiths.

In countries like these, the head of government or head of state may be legally required to be a member of a given faith. Powers to appoint high-ranking members of the state churches are also often still vested in the worldly governments. These powers may be slightly anachronistic or superficial, however, and disguise the true level of religious freedom the nation possesses.

Secularists generally do not hold that the state must be atheist — that is, opposed to religion. However, traditionalist religious critics of secularism often consider secularism to be a departure from tradition in the direction of atheism. Those who believe that the state has religious obligations, or that it must be informed by religious values, often regard secularism as atheism.

The opposite end of the spectrum from secularism is a theocracy, in which a religion controls the government, and the rule of law is closely linked with the interpretation of a religious texts such as the Bible or the Koran. A few outright theocracies exist today, such as the Vatican or Iran, in which politics is either completely run by religious authorities or run only with its explicit consent. Arguably a few other nations in the Middle East have political policies which are often directly dictated or strongly influenced by religious leaders.

Many religions, such as Catholicism and Islam, hold that one must not separate Church and State. The Catholic Church's 1983 canon law proclaims that "Christ's faithful are to strive to secure that in the civil society the laws which regulate the formation of the young also provide a religious and moral education in the schools that is in accord with the conscience of the parents." [1]

Islam holds that all political life must exist within Islamic law. There is a contemporary debate in Islam whether obedience to God is ultimately compatible with the Western secular pattern, which separates religion from civic life, as opposed to Islamic ideals of toleration.

At the same time, some religions appear to advocate such separation. For example, many Christians, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, interpret Biblical passages such as Christ's admonition to "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" as a warning not to be involved in civil governments. One common theme among such religions is that the world and the government are hopelessly corrupt and that religious involvement in government would corrupt the religion more than it would save society.

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