Declare Church and State forever separate and distinct, but each free within their proper spheres, and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The separation of church and state was meant to protect church from state; a state that declares religion off limits in public life is a state that declares itself supreme over all religious values.
The Church's role should be separated from the state's role.
I think church and state should remain entirely separate at all costs, and that the decision of religious marriage should be of each faith to debate and decide free of political influence.
It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution this idea of the separation of church and state.
The obligation of the state is to guarantee freedom of religion, and that implies dealing with all of them on an equal footing.
The tenet of the separation of church and state is an unconstitutional doctrine.
We have this idea in our minds that there's this separation of church and state in America, which I think is a good thing. And we extend that to our politics - not just church and state, but it's also there's a separation of religion and politics. But of course there isn't.
I would suggest the taxation of all property equally, whether church or corporation, exempting only the last resting place of the dead and possibly, with proper restrictions, church edifices.
Quite often you hear people say, 'What about separation of church and state?' There is no such thing.
I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church.