To start this, I should list my position and background as this will be a divisive piece. I am 16, a white straight cisgender male ally, I am agnostic and pro-choice, I have very liberal and socialist views, and I would currently call myself a Democrat. 

For a long time now people have used religion, most commonly Christian faiths, to bolster and validate their political views. This has always been the case, but for years, these people and methods have become more and more prominent. The most recent example is the overturning of Roe v Wade on June 22, 2022. The political party behind this is the Republican GOP and many people on that side have looked to religion and the Bible as their evidence for why this should be the case. Other examples of this are equal marriage rights, being able to have gender reassignment surgeries, and going even as far back as civil rights among all genders and races. Politicians even used the bible to condone slavery. 

This trend is not new and it is not going away. On February 20 the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are children. This has many effects that are not prevalent in this specific conversation but could have many negative consequences. Specifically, the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Tom Parker mentioned God in his opinion.  

“The People of Alabama have declared the public policy of this State to be that unborn human life is sacred,” Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in his concurring opinion. “We believe that each human being, from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God, created by Him to reflect His likeness.

These examples of laws backed by religion is all a prelude to back up my main point. There needs to be a clearer and stricter separation of church and state. Lawmakers should not be able to use religion to support their decisions. This is dangerously close if not already forcing religion on the people they govern. 

The United States Government is supposed to be a Representative Democracy, using your religion for decisions that affect the people you represent is not representative. This is hardly even democracy when the majority of the American People are Pro-Choice or at the bare minimum want to leave it open for some cases, and the Supreme Court decides to overturn National Abortion rights. 

This is only one example as well. For a long time, some people have tried to get the government more religious, but it has only recently become more and more effective. Some even believe the United States should adopt a national religion and become a sort of fascist state. This kind of mentality is comparable to the beginnings of Nazi opinions on other religions and ethnicities. Some Churches already preach a political agenda and outright support a presidential candidate. As a specific example, you can find many representations of EX-president Trump as a Christ-like figure and he has even been preached as such. 

This kind of entanglement between church and state should not exist. The Federal Government of the United States is there to protect things like religious freedom, not force one religion while condemning others. Some of history’s greatest and strongest empires have fallen because of the entanglement between Church and State. When a government pressures and forces a religion on its people it marginalizes and ostracizes people outside of that religion. This causes division, division causes conflict, and conflict can destabilize a nation. 

This goes further than just enforcing religion. As mentioned and examined, religion is used as reasoning for opinions on many civil rights and civil liberties issues. The moment a government adopts a national religion, it stops protecting its people and their freedom. The separation of church and state currently means that churches do not have to pay taxes. This is a major loss of revenue for the country’s economy but it is done so the separation is fair and not hypocritical. But if, as any church could, a church preaches and encourages one specific candidate, especially as a messiah-like figure, they should pay taxes as they have broken the separation. 

Enforcing politics because they align with religious beliefs is discrimination against many people with varying beliefs in the country.