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January 23, 2004
Church, Meet State
France has been in the news a lot lately for their controversial ban on religious symbols in government establishments, including schools. France practices a very strict separation of church and state as a result of their history of religious monarchy, and religious persecution. In order to preserve this separation, they are taking radical measures.
The United States also practices separation of church and state. This is taken from the first amendment to the US Bill of Rights: " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...". The American point of view is to let the people practice, as long as the government stays out of it. For example, the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court building. Note, that the fact that the monument was put there in the first place indicates a much softer stance than that of France. Even more to the point, in President Bush's State of the Union Address, he implied he would go as far as a constitutional amendment to "value the institution of marriage".
Canada, on the other hand, has no explicit separation of church and state. In fact, the first line in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms recognizes "the supremacy of God and the rule of law". As a result, Catholic schools are given public funding in many provinces. But, Canada is also very socially progressive; it's of the only countries in the world to move to legalize gay marriage.
It's interesting that most people would consider Canada a very socially liberal country, even though its government is the least disentagled from religion (more specifically, Christianity) of the three.
Comments
We stopped saying the Lord's Prayer when I was in grade one or two. We stopped singing the National anthem around grade five. I was rather under the impression that Canada had seperated religion from government. It always seemed to me that the United States with their "In God We Trust" were the real social stagnants.
Posted by: ian at January 23, 2004 9:08 PM
There are even many schools that no longer allow the classes to celebrate Halloween or Christmas either. Times sure have changed since I went to school. I even remember singing 'God Save The Queen'
Posted by: at January 23, 2004 9:37 PM