Background

• A number of hot-button issues in American politics center on the division between church and state. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is written as �Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion; or prohibiting the free exercise thereof�.� The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to mean that there must be a protected separation between church and state.
• Issues that challenge this divide are extensive. They include embryonic stem-cell research, defining marriage to be between men and women, teaching intelligent design in public schools, public vouchers for religious schools, "faith-based" initiatives, prayer in schools, or any other matter in which religion and government overlap.

Debate

• Religious conservatives hold that the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. America's founders did not intend for the Constitution to strip religion from the public sphere.

• Secularists believe Government agencies should not endorse, promote, or encourage religion in any way. Faith-based proposals express a preference for a specific belief system and discriminate against those that do not subscribe to that set of beliefs. A person's political status therefore becomes conditional to their religious affiliation.

Country Comparison

Recent Developments

• Recent developments in defining the boundary between church and state have been made in the debate over school vouchers and prayer in public buildings (schools, courts, councils).

Additional Information