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Here in the United States, the principle that church and state should be separate is so woven into the fabric of our culture, many take it for granted as a fact of American life. We understand that everyone in the nation is entitled to practice the religion of their choice and worship freely, but also that the nation does not have an official religion, and that civic spaces should be religiously neutral.
Yet not everyone in the United States is committed to this long-standing idea. Both Christian nationalists and Catholic integralists dislike the idea that religion and statecraft should be kept separate. Some want to make Christianity the state religion. Others would like to use the force of government to enforce certain practices and ban others, based not on natural law or the constitution, but on their interpretation of their denominational creeds.
So it’s not surprising that some political thinkers have been raising the alarm, warning that the boundary between church and state is in jeopardy. What Catholics ought to think about this, however, is a different question. After all, our allegiance is to God first, before the state. And as people involved in public life, why wouldn’t we want to use whatever tools are in our grasp—including the tools of governance—to create a society more aligned with Catholic principles?
On this episode of Glad You Asked, the hosts talk to political philosopher and activist Stephen Schneck about where the idea of separation of church and state came from, and what Catholics should think about it. Schneck is retired faculty at the Catholic University of America, where he served as Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies. Under President Obama he served on the White House Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He is on the board for Catholic Climate Covenant, Sojourners, and Democrats for Life of America. He has published extensively on political philosophy and public policy.
Learn more about this topic and read some of Schneck’s work in these links.
- “The danger of blurring the line between church and state,” a U.S. Catholic interview.
- Any religion allied with nationalism is dangerous, by Stephen Schneck
- “We don’t understand religious freedom. COVID-19 proved it.” by Don Clemmer
- “Does religious freedom favor some religions over others?” by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
- “How the Supreme Court Is Dismantling the Separation of Church and State,” by Hayley Durudogan and Sydney Bryant
- “’The great dechurching’: Why so many Americans are leaving their churches,” by Jonathan Chang and Meghna Chakrabarti
- “In a First Among Christians, Young Men Are More Religious Than Young Women,” by Ruth Graham
Glad You Asked is sponsored by the Claretian Missionaries USA, a congregation of Catholic priests and brothers who live and work with the most vulnerable among us. To learn more, visit claretians.org.
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