Topic: Should the religion interfere with political issues? (Read 453 times)

Religions do not belong to the government, and there is no point in being under the pressure of other opinions that do not share the same beliefs.
Whatever their religious beliefs, people need to remember that their beliefs are nothing more than their personal views, and in many countries there is a Constitution that has some obligations to protect what we call "inalienable rights." Therefore, whatever personal convictions may be, the Constitution guarantees that others can live and think freely as they decide for themselves.
Rights guarantee, among other things, that neither of us should feel compelled to accept someone else's religious beliefs and that the government has no right to impose religious beliefs in the lives of citizens.

I think a previous reply of mine was deleted on this thread when I just said 'No'. Fair enough, I'll elaborate.  

Religion should not interfere with politics, it has enough problems on it's own without adding political influence. My main objection is that it already does, and affects people's lives if they don't conform to the state's interpretation of religion in certain regions. When laws are created/enforced purely based on religious beliefs and not 'moral' ones, it directly affects those that do not believe in the religion involved.

Why should someone's religious beliefs (or lack of) affect their ability to live their daily lives just because of where they happen to  be born? I am yet to find someone that can give me an answer.

I've had interesting discussions, both online and in 'real life' regarding this (for reference I am talking about people born in the UK, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Germany, U.S.A., Canada, Morocco, South Africa, Russia and probably more).

My opinion is that politics, and the international and local laws that evolve from it, should not depend on anyone's beliefs.

I enjoy a discussion though, and am known to shift opinion from one minute to the next, so bring it on.

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Edit. I realise that religious beliefs obviously do affect people's lives depending on where they are born, I just wish it didn't.

If religion is important for the voters in a democracy, the politic governance should of course reflect that. Every voters religious or not is of equal value, in a democracy that is...

The role of the government today is not what you say, that is mearly what it is supposed to be. Today its sole purpose is to get them selves and the bankers rich while making us think politics, religion or culture is the problem. The only problem is the monetary systems that is being worshiped by our greedy and corrupts politicians. I rather see a monk rule then a bribed, bank loving, delusional and brainwashed, asshole to do it. But that is just me!

Should religion interfere with politics? No, but that's not to say that religious beliefs should not be taken into account.  Just because our politicians don't (and cannot) share the very diverse beliefs of all their constituents, it doesn't mean that they should overlook them entirely when creating policy.  Religion is a very private, personal thing.

Lately, politicians and religious leaders are not helping the world at all. The activities of most religious leaders and politicians has led people to poverty. In most parts of the world, the people who struggle for power are mostly politicians and religious leaders. We need to be watchful of such dishonest behaviour of religious leaders and politicians so we can ensure peace in the world.

Politics and religion has deceived the  world for a very long time now. The two should never be trusted, we need to be cautious so we don't follow the bad or negative influences that politics and religion has on the larger society. I believe most of the problems the world is going through at the moment is as a result of poor governance from politicians and the wayward teachings of religion.

Religion is bad; politics is bad. Don't let them mix together. I fear together they can ruin the world...

We can if we clearly say that beliefs are an individual choice of every person and play by the rules.
I know it never happens because a religious person will usually prefer another religious person to work with him instead of an atheist. If you elect a catholic president and a catholic prime minister you can bet that 90% of the people in their cabinet will be catholics. The other 10% will be there to make it look like they're open to other religions and beliefs and don't discriminate.

Is this pertaining to the US?

It should be remembered that we have the very important concept of Separation of Church and State.  The founding fathers knew the importance of this, as shown in their writings and correspondence.  If a religious minority, or even majority, seized power or had great influence then they could oppress through the imposition of their beliefs on the population.

Nope. Religion in a sense is our belief. What our parents and other adults in our surroundings tell us that we must follow. On the other hand, politics is the view of the overall situation of the country. This needs a very OBJECTIVE perspective which needs to result in as much as rewards as possible with low risks. Now here's the thing. Pleasing two things at the same time is very, very difficult. Pleasing the people and pleasing the church can be very taxing to the government since most of the times, these two can never meet at the same line. Why? Because even if there was a state religion for a country and there is a lot of people with that religion, not all of them are devout believers. Some just live by it and some just follow the instructions of parents. This makes it a lot difficult to please the masses.

Mixing religion and politics together is a very serious mistake and must be avoided at all costs. Despite the fact that some religions declare love, peace, etc., etc., any of them religions is capable of doing an irreparable harm to most positive government initiatives. Verdict: NOT EVER!

Religion should not interfere in political issues they should focus in preaching the word of god. Religion is important to people because its the way people will be closed to god by means of praying and preaching. The government itself should also focus in the  needs of the country and tge better economy of the country. But now religion is interfering with the government that is why they cannot resolve the problems the country is facing.

Well said, an extremely dangerous mix for that matter. I mean look at Iran, so many things go wrong. Or look at Saudi Arabia, women could not drive up until this year. That just did not make any sense. Best to keep both seperated, let everyone practive their religion privately and all will be okay..

Religion + politics is a dangerous mix, I guess, so I believe that under no circumstances should religion interfere with political issues. Otherwise, we might potentially face even more problems because religion has its own issues that need to be addressed. It's too complicated to me.

Never. I believe early Americans separated church from the state in the early days of the US and it was for a reason. They must have known something 

An open minded invidual always preferes to separate a church from a state. history tought us that going together hand in hand won't bring any good in our lives

I believe that the state and the church, or the politics and religion should be working together as a mutually-independent body of institution that balance the well-being of the country and its people. Thus, there should be a well-defined separation of the church and the state. I do not think that religion must interfere with political issues as much as I don't think that religion can help the government with its polutical issues. However, despite all of the things I have addressed, I still do believe that there should be no separation of God and the state. Every religion is entitled to express their opinion about a political issue but there power should not go beyond that. The religion, if they strongly want to say something, there should always be a limit. Thus, balance and harmony will prevail.

Politics itself start from religion. Talking about such an issue, critically the system of government need to be considered and the way of life of the people (i.e. what they believe) which politics is an ambient of it.
One cannot automatically rule out the fact that some country decision is based on their believe which makes it impossible to be absolutely ruled out. Religion plays vital roles in politics because politics is a game relatively that required divinity.

politics and religion are interwoven into the web of society such that they are mutually reinforcing to ensure balance in society.
politicians of our societies are religious people and have been raised by this same religious society within which these politicians reside and so decisions concerning the society are influenced to a certain degree y the religion.

Explain the difference ?

I agree. But start with the biggest religion... the religion of State.

I would create a system in which I do not know ahead of time whether I will be rich or poor, white or black, Christian or Muslim, etc

If I do not know where I will be born, or what religion my parents will teach me, I would not want religion to interfere with politics

If the question is whether or not this should happen (because as everyone knows, there are countries in which religion decides for citizens), my opinion is: this should not happen. For me, an ideal state must be secular, but communities that generate civil disorder by decisions made on the basis of religion must be controlled for the sake of the security of the population.

Those days where the churches are also ruling the government were done.

I really can't find a good way that they must interact with what the government is doing, they can give guidance but they can't fully take over of its political issues.

I understand your proposition, but based on what I see in my country and what the news has been implicitly telling, it seems that the church has hindered so much advancement that the state could've done because of their so-called moral issues and so on. But, thank you for your wonderful opinion!

Religion should be abolished, only mentally weak people believe in non sense.

On the Democracy people worship nowadays there is place for religion in politics, if people wish for it. So the Democracy's enthusiasts don't have any reason to complain about religious interferences. Many people vote on their representants based on their religion and consequently these represents compose "bench shalls" to defend the interests of those who elected them!

If a country's majority belongs to a specific religion it's normal this matter will interfere on politics.

The truth that when we mention religion, we are referring to something supreme and regardless of the denomination of sect, we hypocritically force it on ourselves that we are serving the same kind of God or god for others. And if we say we serve a God or god that should not be involved in our decision for the masses, it means our belief is in vain. After all politics are not man-made but rather God-made and if not for Him, nothing can be achieved. For us that are Christians we are commanded to pray for our leaders because they are ordained by God. We can interfere spiritually by asking God to step in, in the case of crisis so that we who are His children will not become victims of political miscalculations.

This religious and political relationship is always interesting to discuss. Academics, religionists, politicians, activists, even bureaucrats are equally passionate about discussing religion and politics. There are enough academic works that discuss the phenomenon of religious and political relations.

Jonathan Fox, for example, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, has written many academic works on complex and complex relationships between religion (various religions in the world) and politics (various systems and political activities).

The government that supports and limits the space for religion is equally great.

On the one hand, many governments "lock in" the central role of religion in the public, while on the other hand there are also many religions that influence and dictate the political world.

Political neutrality towards religion is increasingly becoming a rare item. At the same time, religion also becomes an increasingly important entity in politics.

Go to a church or mosque sometime. Notice the way that people "cheer" for their particular religion there.

Go to a rock concert, or Burning Man, or something like Woodstock. Notice how people cheer and celebrate something wonderful, way stronger than we ever see religious people celebrating their religion in a church.

Go to big political rallies, and watch people become so extremely emotionally involved that they even start physically fighting against people of the opposite political platform.

Churches can show emotion for a particular religion.
Similar but stronger emotion is shown at musical concerts.
The strongest emotion is shown at political rallies.

Separate religion and politics? LOL! Politics and the State is the BIGGEST religion of all (except for money, maybe).

When religion and politics share the same bed, there can only be trouble. These two tools are really powerful. Even individually, if mismanaged they can cause a lot of havoc. Religion normally is created to nurture the soul of a man. Politics however seeks to oversee his outer interactions. If the same entity wields the power over a man's inner and outer interactions, this is really dangerous. This is why I would always be in support of the separation of politics and religion. I believe this is the only way forward.

Why the Pledge of Allegiance Is Un-American







Read more at https://fee.org/articles/why-the-pledge-of-allegiance-is-un-american/.

I believe that religion and political is just the same with church and state set up which should be treated independent and should not interfere each other. Although there are really cases that religion would somehow affects the political issue like for example in creating laws which should be in the morality standards of all religions. The thing is separation of church of state is just right as these can only affect each other rather than to really interfere those political issues.

I think there are reasons why it shouldn’t. There are many religions, and only one state. If all those sect/denomination would interfere with the political issues it would be chaotic. Both religion and politics have one common goal: that is to acquire political power and use it to fulfill their aims. However, to achieve this object, their methods are different. Religion mobilizes religious sensibilities of people in order to get their support to capture power; while politics uses intrigue, diplomacy, and makes attempt to win public opinion either democratically, if the system allows it, or usurps power with the help of army, if the society is under-developed and backward.

In theory, if a population is comprised entirely of people from one religion, it could be okay for religion to play a big role in politics. I say "in theory" because that it's pretty much impossible without forcing people to be of one religion. Thus, it's better to keep religion and state separate. Governments can consult with religious leaders and try to make sure their followers have the rights and freedoms they deserve, but they shouldn't be making decisions themselves for a whole country.

There are a lot of problems we, as individual and as a society, faces everyday. Whether it be physically, mentally, environmentally, pyschologically or morally it seems that these problems are inevitable.

The role of the government is to stabilize and provide the basic needs of a citizen including the order and organization among individuals. While the religion is to ensure that faith and morale of the citizens are still in equilibrium with whatever aspect.

In terms of the political issues that arises between the government and the opposition, should the sector of religion interfere with whatever the citizens and the government must decide?