What Does "Separation of Church and State" Mean?

[@Paulthored]

If we're actually separating Religion from the ability to influence Government.... Then Atheism needs to be considered a Religion, under this circumstance.

[@chanroberts4670]

The establishment and free-exercise clauses are about protecting the practice of religious faith from interference by the government; not protect the government from religious people - and not protect the government from non-religious people. The two clauses essentially tell government to keep its hands off the practice of religion or the practice of non-religion.

[@thedude0000]

0:46 - There's a plethora of things not literally written in the Constitution. That's why you must also add Case Law, because Supreme Court rulings (like it or not) are part of that.

[@chanroberts4670]

Case law is irrelevant. Only what is actually enumerated in the Constitution matters.

[@thedude0000]

@@chanroberts4670 that's not even remotely true....seriously. Case law interprets the Constitution and there's literally thousands of examples of this.

[@thedude0000]

Fine if you're churches want to talk politics, you should not have a tax exempt status......

[@UniversalMysticsOfChrist]

The law is that you cannot tell your congregation exactly who to vote for or against or else you lose the tax exempt status.

[@chanroberts4670]

As long as you remove tax exemption for all other non-profit organizations.

[@thedude0000]

@@chanroberts4670 If they engage in politics...then we agree.