Religion and Government.

[Che Jexster]

Does anyone believe that it's possible to separate religion and government? When i went to school in the states they had all kinds of laws against it, yet they managed to step around them most of the time using things like "the bible as literature" as part of the english ciriculum. People seem to feel the need to think laws come from "God" or are at least based on religious morality. No one seems to trust others when it comes to governing, and everyone seems to think that in order to have a "good" society the laws must be divine in nature. Abortion laws are a perfect example. If you took away all the church goers from that debate there would be no restrictions anywhere. Comments?

[El Commandante]

I think that religion and government should be kept very much seperate, religion down to it's core is opinionated and set in it's ways restricting debate and discussion. Like you said with the abortion debate.

I think that it would be very difficult to seperate the two, especially enforcing it, there would be cries of, racism, prejeudice. You just need to look at Tsarist Russia to see what a mess religion can create when it rules with the government. I can't think of a government that has had no religious interference, possibly India with Nehru. He was an atheist and did not allow religion to interfere with government policy but it must have been hard considering the political climate at the time.

[cullinane]

There are numerous cases of the Church/State throughout history, particularly since the 19th Century.
In France 1905, the law of Separation of Church and State was passed for example.

Religion is indeed a private matter.

Marxism has always regarded all modern religions and churches, and each and every religious organisation, as instruments of bourgeois reaction that serve to defend exploitation and to befuddle the working class.

Yet it is simply degenerate bourgeois"leftism" to engage in "believer-baiting", a type of crude athiest propaganda which can do nothing but serve the interests of the oppressors by 1) causing socialists to get involved in needless and uresolvable debates, and 2) severely hampering any people interested in the socialist cause.

[Karo Chevez]

One is deluded to think there exists a separation between religion and government,between church
and state,the history of the one is inescapably the
history of the other.From antiquity kings recieved
sanction of authority by priests acting on behalf of
the tribal god,research the annals of kings,priests,
and prophets and you will find that they share a
common heritage.The power of the state depends a
on decree of religion.European monarchies were to
continue the custom of eastern despots whose roles
were defined by divine ordinance.The pope blessed
the office of kings and the custom of recieving office
of president of the United States just as the coranation
of British monarchs is a solemn religious occasin in
which the newlly elected president takes an oath of
office by invoking the name of god.With this said I ll
close with something I once read however I forget the
author,there can be no freedom until the last king is
hanged by the entrails of the last priest".-Karo

[Fires of History]

Of course it is possible to separate religion from government. Examples in history abound, the most current being our comrades in China.

North American society, in particular, has tied patriotism and 'god' so tightly together that it will be sometime before that is but a memory.

But we can hope-and quit going to church! Quit supporting oppressive religions!

Power to the People,
Trance

[Field Marshal]

what does Communism say about religion, that it can't be practiced, or that it should be kept private?