Religion does not belong in government. The USA’s founders and the authors of our US Constitution thought through this concept and correctly incorporated the philosophy of separation of Church and State as part of our national fabric. Laws govern citizens, religious doctrine does not. Freedom of religion is as important as freedom from religion.
An elected official is supposed to serve his or her local constituency entirely, not just those there who share a political or religious or other philosophy. Thus, Republican bureaucrats cannot deny government services to Democrats – and vice-versa – and Christian bureaucrats cannot deny government services to Jews or other religious believers or gays or blacks or handicapped persons or left-handed persons.
A religious state declares one religion for its citizens. According to a July 2014 Pew Research article, thirty countries worldwide require a religious head of state. Of the thirty, twenty-five are Muslim, two Christian, two Buddhist, and one other. If such a theocracy situation existed existed in the USA, Baptists or Apostolic Christians or any of the other creeds could interfere with legal functions. For example, a now infamous Kentucky County Clerk refused marriage license applications due to her religious faith. Can a religiously doctrinally bound clerk be permitted to declare a US Supreme Court decision invalid? No, not for any reason, religious or otherwise. What if an elected county commissioner with Yemeni heritage somewhere in the USA tried to introduce sharia law into weekly meetings? Similar consequences? How about if a deputy sheriff issued tickets to people who had not gone to church on Sunday?
We are not a Christian nation. We are not a Jewish nation. We are not a Muslim nation. We are not a Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Buddhist, or any other kind of religion nation. It is foolish to say so. It is foolish for a Kentucky clerk to assume her office is first an Apostolic Christian office, and second an administrative office.
Imagine pronouncements that the USA is a white nation, or a black nation or a Latino nation made by proponents of these groups?! Stating skin color as a national identity is as foolish as stating religion as a national identity.
We are a nation of lots of government offices. Our myriad government offices administer laws and regulations, not religious doctrines – we’d need help from supernatural sources if it were otherwise.
May God, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Krishna, Earth Mother and all other deities and imaginary friends bless the USA’s myriad government offices. Nevertheless, elected officials who assert their religion above government duty should be recalled from office, and appointed officials who do the same should be fired.