Maintaining Walls of Separation To Break Down Walls of Separation

Thomas Jefferson once wrote that "religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship."

I am inclined to agree. Presently, in much of the world, there has been a tendency towards quite the opposite, with a loud, aggressive, and militantly righteous religion is being imposed upon people. We see the rise of Islamic Republics in the Islamic world. Iran was the first, but certainly not the last, and not even the most extreme. Afghanistan was the most extreme example, with the Taliban's reign of terror and tragedy. Now, it looks like Egypt is ready to take the plunge and hand itself over to the religious extremists.

But we do not have to go so far away from home o see inappropriate levels of mixing government and religion, which has traditionally been kept separate throughout American history. We are seeing challenges from prominent, and potentially dangerous, political and religious voices alike right here at home.

The most notable example as of late has been Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who has been giving Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney a serious challenge for supremacy in the Republican Presidential race. He claims that he wanted to vomit after hearing a speech by John F. Kennedy essentially praising the strict wall of separation between church and state, and vowing his own efforts to maintain and respect the divide.

By contrast, Santorum has been maintaining that there has never really been a separation between church and state in America, and is doing everything that he can to blur the lines between the two.

Santorum is very vocal about other things, as well. He has shown himself to be quite the homophobe. He has mentioned that Satan seems to be playing a prominent role in the United States that he sees. He has proven to be staunchly pro-life, or anti-choice, and is willing to proceed with attempts to curtail a woman's right to an abortion. He even seems to oppose contraceptive to avoid pregnancies. Naturally, he is not so vocal about government programs to assist such children once they are brought into the world – unless they are raised to believe what he believes in. Unless they belong to his social network, to his church. This is the guy that is giving Mitt Romney the most serious challenge for the Republican nomination?

It is a sign of direction that this country has been going for many, many years, frankly. I will admit to not being surprised.

More extreme times yield more extreme results. So is it really surprising that hard-line religion is making such a strong comeback? It is a throwback to an earlier era, and as such, none of the ideas that are being presented within this framework are new or even fresh.

It is generally understood that religion not only comes into conflict with government, but also with science and progress. Those who are prominent authorities in any given religion fight hard against scientific evidence that increasingly pushes religion into the territory of mythology in the process of revolutionizing the world, and perhaps we are simply witnessing a counterrevolution, so to speak. Clearly, many religions feel threatened by science, to the point of refuting what is right in front of their eyes. That is a major problem with religion, of course: that what is advocated is "faith", and that this can come at the expense of facts.

Yet, I believe that it is a bit more complicated than that, even. Too much belief in any institution or system or set of beliefs or " faith", if you will, can be a dangerous thing – and I am talking about things outside of religion. It is a recipe for disaster. Here, I am specifically referring to excessive beating of the drums for a nation (such as the United States, presently), or for an ideology (capitalism and the "free market" system). When we get too mired in one set of beliefs, in one way of doing things, then we begin to come dangerously close to matching the traditional religious viewpoint of being infallible, the way Catholics believe that the Pope is infallible – eve when history has proven otherwise. Even when some popes have contradicted one another. Again, what is right before your eyes does not matter.

In the United States, people have gotten overly self-righteous about a set of beliefs. Among these are that the United States is the greatest country in the world, as many American exceptionalists suggest. Also among these, is that capitalism and the free-market advocates and those who favor increased deregulation (usually, these are one and the same) are entirely correct on every level, and that government "intervention" is a bad thing, because government is the problem, that government is almost automatically evil and to be approached with a high measure of skepticism, as Reagan stated and every conservative since has repeated like a puppet.

There is another separation between different styles of institutions that is being breached, and perhaps it is time to maintain this strict separation, to reinforce it. I am talking about the separation between corporation and state, because that is getting very dangerous.

There are laws in the books about the conflict of interest when a government official has too close ties with some corporations, and there are other laws in the books regulating the power of corporation. But in the United States, as indeed in much of the industrialized world, deregulation has been the flavor of the moment, and everyone's favorite word. It has become such a popular term, that it is almost like a political football of sorts.

People are only now truly waking up to the dangers of allowing corporate culture too much power and influence. It may just be every bit as dangerous as too much influence by religions.

Institutions in general are dangerous. Give a group of people power, and it will not be long before they are accused, often quite legitimately, of being abusive and overstepping their authorities and of not knowing, or recognizing, or acknowledging, their boundaries.

If we are ever going to be able to truly overcome the divisions that stand between us as groups of people – divisions between race, between sex, between sexual orientation, between nationalities, between religious beliefs, between rich and poor, between really any manner of differences that exist between groups of people, really, than we need to stop thinking in terms of groups that we belong to. It may be comfortable to belong to a certain group, and then to believe what many in that group believe.

Yet, if we yield to this instinct, we are also yielding our individual identities, and our ability to think for ourselves. We are also cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world, and risking our own world view being too small and narrow, and too highly impacted by that group, or perhaps even groups, that we belong to.

I am not saying we should not recognize our differences, or that we should not take pride in what nation or religion or even sex we belong to. Of course we can, and perhaps even should. But like all things, we should not go too far with it, and should keep a good head on our shoulders. In other words, we cannot get so wrapped up in these things that we no longer see anything outside of them. That includes our nationality, our sex, our sexual orientation, our race, our religion, and our beliefs.

We should not abandon our individual identities and the ability to think independently so easily as we have. Especially given that these are not "normal" times. Some things are just too important to allow them to fall away into the background. It is more critical than ever to maintain a strong and sound mind, to exercise it, and to examine this world with a critical eye. It helps to do this if we do not have our view obstructed with beliefs or institutions that obstruct our view when we are too close to them.