Religion and Politics

There is a difference between separation of
church and state and separation of religion and state. In Feudal
Europe, the church not only influenced the government with moral and
ethical/religious initiatives, but had literal economic and government
power. The church officials in certain countries controlled more
wealth than large parts of the government. So when the church was
separated from the state, it not only weakened the hold of the ethical
and moral/religious standards of the church on the government, but
allowed the rulers in control of the state's secular existence to
actually rule the state in the first place. That is "separation of
church and state."

Even now in the USA, where church and state are still separated, we do
not have an atheistic government. Government leaders still take their
ethical and moral/religious ideas into account when making a decision,
and nothing can be done about that. Their religion is part of the
ruler's identities as human beings, and nothing can be done about
that. So we have separation of church and state, but not separation of
religion and state.

Take Israel as a real-example: they have purposeful fusion of religion
and state, which is a tenet of the country's identity. If they were
to separate religion and state in Israel, it would not be a Jewish
state. The question is, should Israel eliminate the fusion of church
and state which still remains there. And it does remain; you know that
having a Jewish mother allows you admission to Israel, and there are
government decisions made with the ulterior motive of keeping a
predominance of Jews.

So... modern political philosophy, being based on the real, tangible
world, requires separation of church and state, but not complete
separation of religion and state, since "religion" encompasses moral
standards that even atheists like me hold. If we killed the religion
in Bush, he would likely lose his weak moral ideas, (remember, this is
a hypothetical situation) ideas that are applicable to the real,
secular world as well as his twisted religion. Democratic religious politics is NOT
simply about separating religion and church from the state,
although it may include that. It's about putting things in an
orientation that is relevant to the world, and right now that means at least some blurring between religion and state.