NEW HAVEN, Conn. (ABP) — The separation of church and state is part of what makes America great — and America is plagued by “total ignorance” about what it means, according to panelists at a Yale Divinity School event.
However, not even all the expert panelists agree on how the pesky details of church-state separation work themselves out in real life.
David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, joined a megachurch pastor, a political editor, policy experts and theologians Oct. 12 to discuss the role of politics and faith in the public sphere.
Called “Voices & Votes II: Shaping a New Moral Agenda,” the event was co-sponsored by three Christian magazines: Sojourners, Christianity Today, and The Christian Century.
“The founders began the [enumeration] of our must fundamental rights with the statement that ‘Congress shall make no law' even ‘respecting' the establishment of religion,” Saperstein said. “We, the religious community, get enormous benefits out of the fact that this exists.”
Unfortunately, Saperstein said, some people in the Religious Right have deluded Americans into thinking that upholding the separation concept amounts to being anti-religion.
On the contrary, separation of church of state doesn't mean Americans don't have religious principles that influence public policy, said Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The key is to find the middle ground between an official public religion and no mention of the role of religion in public life.
Seamus Hasson, founder of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said differences of religion and its practice should be treated like race: acknowledge and celebrate the differences instead of pretending they're not there. The Becket Fund is a group that works to promote its understanding of religious freedom, which sometimes includes defending officials or government agencies accused of unconstitutionally promoting religion.
For instance, Americans usually celebrate secular but cultural events like St. Patrick's Day and Black History Month without problems, Hasson said, but he “always gets calls” from people upset about the religious holidays of Christmas or Chanukah.
“Why should we pretend we're all agnostic?” he asked.
As pastor of the Vineyard Church of Columbus, Ohio, Richard Nathan said the church has a big role in supporting a healthy understanding of religious freedom.
His concern is not about using public institutions to assert Christian views, he said. He cares more about forming healthy contacts between community leaders and church leaders — partnerships that foster confidence between the two and that neither corrupt religion nor destroy the neutrality of the state.
It's not about “how can we gain more rights vis-à-vis the community by aggressively promoting our posture” but rather by “approaching the community by way of service,” Nathan said.
Amy Sullivan, the political editor for Time magazine, said people in both the Democratic and Republican parties could use some “basic education” about what the separation of church and state means.
“I'm always chagrined when I hear … ‘I want somebody in office who is of my faith,'” she said. That's “getting far far away from our Baptist forefathers.”
Sullivan, who was raised Baptist, said the Christian community is getting wiser when it comes to forming alliances with partisan groups. For instance, she noted, many left-leaning evangelicals want to make sure that Democrats don't take them for granted during this election like Republicans have, in recent years, taken their conservative brethren for granted.
“In some senses, folks on the … have an excellent cautionary tale for them in the Religious Right and the marriage between the Republican Party and religious conservatives,” she said.
Eric Sapp, who works to build relationships between the Democratic Party and religious communities, agreed. It's a very good time to be a Democrat — everything is going in their favor, said the senior partner at Common Good Strategies.
“The party has learned a great deal and part of that they've learned from some of the mistakes made by the Religious Right,” Sapp said.
But Ralph Reed, the founder of the Christian Coalition, a conservative advocacy group, didn't let the conjecture about the failed policies of the GOP go on for long.
“All I can say is enjoy it while you can because eventually there are going to be two nominees,” Reed said. “Don't make the mistake of watching the intramural within the party and think that that … they won't be united in the fall.”
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