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Frank Mazzaglia| Guest Columnist

Heres your assignment. At the end of the week, be prepared to write a short essay of not more than 500 words explaining why the United States has avoided the long and bloody religious wars that were so common in every other place of this earth?

Phones rang. Classmates traded ideas. We searched the textbooks. Nothing!

The next Monday when class resumed, the professor raised the question again for discussion before we began to write the dreaded essay.

Well, Sarah, he asked What do you think?

Without a seconds hesitation, she responded, Friends in heaven! The United States had friends in heaven.

The professor had a puzzled look on his face but this didnt deter Sarah who went on to explain. When she finished, there wasnt time to write an essay.

Sarah got a well deserved Ain the course.

Though not exactly in these words, heres what Sarah had to say.

The United States, arguably the most religiously vibrant nation on the earth did not become so despite its separation of church and state but because of it.

At the outset of this country a number of states established their own official churches until 1833 when government support for the official churches began to decline.

Then came the Civil War resulting in a fundamental change in the relationship between the federal government and the states which found expression in the Fourteenth Amendment. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive to any person life, liberty, or property without due process of law: nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. Thats the reason we have fights and not battles over prayer in school.

The second major influence came with immigration. In 1789, the population of the United States was 99 percent Protestant. Today it ranges just above 53 percent. Today, the United States is home to more Hindus than Unitarians, more Muslims than Congregationalists, and more Buddhists than Jews. The changes in demography changed the notion that the United States could any longer be conceived of a a Protestant or Even a Christian nation.

Meanwhile the relationship between conservative Protestants and Catholics improve. While early years created hard feelings over support of parochial schools, a more common sense of ecumenism has demanded less separation of church and state. This has eventually shifted to pro-religion forces who seek less separation between church and state and secular anti-religious groups demanding more separation through the courts all of which has morphed into what we now recognize as culture wars."

The courts wrestled with two conflicting points. The establishment clause allowing different points of view, and the free exercise which moved from thought to practice. People could believe, for example as good Mormons, but if polygamy were allowed, it could change the fabric of society. These were tough questions which required accommodation between belief and practice.

The Supreme Court has become the battleground for scores of difficult cases involving religious freedom. Both sides of any question can probably agree that the answers are never completely clear and always difficult. Christians may have to put away their Bibles in the school cafeteria, but they have total freedom in other parts of their live. Occasional misuse of government funds is balanced by good citizens crafting ways to help people of faith without distorting religion. Even religious minorities who experience discomfort over occasional imposition of Judeo-Christian rhetoric and ritual nonetheless live at a time and place where religious minorities enjoy more protection than ever.

Yes, put it all together and Sarah came up with the right answer. The reason why the United States, unlike others nations of the world, has been able to avoid pogroms, and bloody religious conflicts is actually quite simple.

We have friends in heaven.

Frank Mazzaglia can be reached at frankwrote@aol.com.

Read the rest here:
Why has the United States been able to avoid bloody religious conflicts? - Milford Daily News