Carlos Hernandez

Professor Bowers
English 1101-102
12 May 2016
Religion and Politics
The separation of the Church and State is important in our
country, while religion does support a healthy and peaceful
lifestyle there are sections of religion that are unpleasant and
in our politics we need the separation for reasons like keeping
the elections fair for the candidates, and keeping the government
from favoring, or establishing a religious state. Although it is
not specified in the constitution, the Court ruled in the case of
Everson vs The Board of Education the clause against
establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of
separation between Church and State. So while it may not be in
written in the constitution, it is protected as if it was.
(Hansen)
In the case of Everson vs The Board of Education, a school
district was reimbursing the parents of the children who took the
school bus. Taxpayer Arch R. Everson sued the school district who
were giving out reimbursements to the majority of the schools
that were Catholic. The first case that took place was in New

Jersey, 1946 which resulted in a loss for Mr. Everson. He

continued to take the case to the next higher court such as the
states highest court, and eventually appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court based on federal constitutional grounds. On
February 12 1947, the court ruled in favor of Everson and the
church was disconnected from the schools. (Green)
The impact of the case had a ripple effect on the nation as
many churches removed their influence from the public and private
schools, such as misappropriated funding. Justice Wiley Rutledge
stated that the Schools needs to be removed from "every form of
public aid or support for religion, which is a wall of
separation from the Church and State. (Case Briefs Law)
While many Christians claim that the Separation of Church
and State is targeting Christianity, it is in fact not targeting
any religion specifically but rather creating a fair environment
free from religious influence. If no religion is allowed to
influence the government, then all religions are therefore equal.
I understand that when it comes to voting having a candidate of
similar religious background may make you appear more trustworthy
than an atheist, but politics should be based on their solutions
to real problems and their attitude towards running this nation.
There are several countries where the head of the state is
required to be ruled by religion, one of these countries is

Afghanistan. In the 1970s communist took control of the capital

of Afghanistan and set new laws including one that allowed for
women to receive education. In 1996 the Taliban took back the
capital and set Sharia Law which is the Old Muslim Law identical
to Christianitys Old Testament, a cruel law that oppresses women
and allows for public executions and stoning. This is an example
of what countries allow and turn a blind eye for because of their
fear of opposing religion, now imagine if Sharia law was imposed
on American soil. If our country allowed for religion to
influence our politics then what would stop any religion from
rising in power and sweeping the nation with Old Testament laws
that oppress its citizens, and you cant fight the state if you
lose freedom of speech. While its hard to imagine our country
turning into a barbaric state, its due to the fact that our
system prevents the Church from influencing the State. (Robinson)
It is important to have a separation of religion from the
government so as to not favor any specific religion, we live in a
free country and while being religious is not a crime, some see
it as unfair to push your religious views onto others or to try
and manipulate the system to benefit only a few.