Why is the "Separation of Church & State" clause in our Constitution
so very important?  Because it keeps our government out of the
business of endorsing any particular type of religion or even any sect
of a religion.

This is how it should be.  Otherwise what will happen is that our
government will drift dangerously downhill, into the abyss of
stupidity, pushing some narrow minded and ignorant religious agenda.
The vast powers of government should NEVER be used for such a
purpose.

The "Separation of Church & State" clause in our Constitution is the
ONLY thing that keeps the people of our country (in this land of ours,
the most diverse country in the world) from going after each others'
throats, as people everywhere else have been doing since time
immemorial, everywhere else in the world, such as the Middle East,
Ireland, the former Yugoslavia, and on and on.

America is a country that was founded, for the most part, by people,
who came here, to escape religious persecution in Europe and
elsewhere.  This is why we have such a thing as 'the separation of
church and state', it is SO PRECIOUS AND IMPORTANT.

Abiding by the "Separation of Church and State" clause of our
Constitution does NOT lead to people's religions being suppressed, in
fact, it leads to the EXACT opposite.  Religion, in America, thrives.
We have, here in America, more places of worship (such as Churches,
Synagogues, Mosques, Temples, and so on) per citizen than any other
country in the world.   And we have true freedom of religion in our
country, where you are free to worship-and-believe in whatever you
want to worship-and-believe.  What is missing is the overprevalence of
fear and intimidation that exists in much of the rest of the world,
where people who have different beliefs and different form of prayers
are subjected to discriminations and persecution.

In the United States of America, you are free to believe in whatever
God you want, and you are free to NOT believe in a God too, if you
want.  Unlike China, where athiesm is the official government
doctrine, in America, atheism is neither encouraged, nor discouraged
by our government.  Our government does not have, and SHOULD NOT have
any bias towards or against ANY religion or belief system.

That's the way it should be.

A government should have better things to do than to dwell into the
spiritual realms of the unknown.

Discriminations against the majority of the people, and their various
religions, begin when governments start officially recognizing and
siding with any particular religion, or sect of a religion, or belief
system.

In conclusion, "Separation of Church and State" was created for two
VERY important reasons:

#1.   To keep RELIGION from using GOVERNMENT as a tool to SUPPRESS THE
CITIZENRY

&

#2.    To keep GOVERNMENT from using RELIGION as a tool to SUPPRESS
THE CITIZENRY

The Separation of Church & State has worked well for our country, and
it has worked well for over 200 years.  Meanwhile, the rest of the
world has been tearing itself apart over the issue.

We should NEVER allow ANY politician to chip away at this basic
foundation of our democracy, because doing so would take our country
back, way back...into the dark ages of ignorance and repression.
Think about it.

For more info, go to this link:  http://members.tripod.com/~candst/

Abel Malcolm