Separation of Church and State: What does this mean? What does this imply?

• Government cannot prohibit the practice of any religion in private or public arenas

• Government cannot officially promote any particular religion in public arenas

• Americans can be neither forced to participate in religion against their will nor prohibited from voluntarily practicing religion.

• No religion or religious activity can be forced (actively or passively) on anyone by any level of government

• The government is to treat all religions equally with no judgments

• The constitution guarantees freedom of religion but, paradoxically, also guarantees freedom from religion if that is someone’s personal choice.

• Government agencies (e.g., public schools) shall neither ban nor endorse any religion (must remain neutral).

• These agencies (esp. schools) seem "stuck between a rock and a hard place," "damned if they do, damned if they don’t": cannot please all of the people all of the time. Problem of satisfying all individuals in a single, pluralistic community.

The "Three Rs": Along with rights comes responsibility. We each have the responsibility to respect the rights of others.

• The "right" of religious freedom works both ways: not only are your religious rights to be protected but so too are you to protect the religious rights of others. The "golden rule": respect the right of others as you would want your rights respected. But in a public arena these rights may conflict…