Religion has historically played a large role in influencing politics and policymaking in the United States. While the country's founders advocated for separation of church and state, religion continues to impact government due to most citizens adhering to religious beliefs and deriving morality from faith. However, non-religious groups are growing and politicians should represent all constituents equally regardless of religious views. Maintaining separation while allowing religious groups a voice requires balance to respect both religious freedom and equality under the law.

1. As a government derives its power from the will of the governed, those that are involved with that government
must consider not only the will of the people but whence their desires and ideologies come. Religion is a force of
influence outside of the confines of political life that creates a centralized adherence to a particular set of
dispositions and morality within a large number of individuals that would possibly not be associated with one
another had it been otherwise. There have been efforts throughout history within and outside of the political
spectrum to maintain the principle of keeping church separate from the state but this doesn't necessarily negate the
idea that religious institutions within America are political institutions as well.
The people of the nation, from whom the government derives their power, derive their will from their
spirituality, individual morality, and social conscience; religion is not a necessary condition for possessing a moral
compass but it is a sufficient one. George Washington asserted in his “Farewell Address” that “[o]f all the
dispositions and habit which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports” and that
“[i]t is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” (IAD,p.245) Indeed,
Washington is declaring that morality and virtue are necessary components of a healthy popular government but he
isn't necessarily conflating morality and virtue with religion although religion begets morality and virtue. A human
being may come to possess moral sense and a virtuous constitution without the aid of religious teachings and may
even have the potentiality of being even more virtuous than the most virtuous Catholic or Protestant. Moreover,
with the existence of morality within atheists, agnostics and secularists, the untethered influence that religion has on
politics is a growing problem for the equality and liberty of man.
The United States of America has drastically changed over the past two hundred and thirty-eight years
since the signing of the Declaration of Independence wherein you will find the phrase that “ … all men are created
equal;” the changes that have occurred have had an impact on the conception and prevalence of equality throughout
the country. Equality, economical and social, is something that is defined within the Declaration as something that
is afforded to all individuals considered citizens of the United States and yet, throughout our history as a nation we
have had to fight for political, racial, gender, and religious equality. On the front of religion lies the idea that the
church and state should be kept separate; Thomas Jefferson went so far as to assert that there must be “[built] a well
of separation between Church and State.” The problem with this sentiment of keeping Church and State separate is
that it isn't exactly being followed by modern politicians and pundits.

2. Whilst on the campaign trail, many a politician vocally advocates and professes their religious ideology in
hopes to strike a chord with the people that are listening to what they have to say. Albeit an efficient method of
drawing attention to oneself and garnering a sense of respect from followers of religion, this practice of publicly
utilizing religion to acquire favor is detriment to those that don't adhere to any religious ideology whatsoever. This
has major ramifications for the equality of man within American society in so far as those that are intended to
represent those that are atheist or agnostic aren't appealing to their disbelief in a God and are therefore undermining
the responsibilities of the representation of such individuals and groups. Indeed, there is a great majority of people
in the United States that practice some form of religion or another but the number of non-religious individuals in
the country keep rising annually. A Pew Research poll on religion in the US conducted in 2012 showed that “ [i]n
the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. Adults,”
and that “[t]heir ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics.”(Pew Research
Center) With such a dramatic rise in the religiously unaffiliated in the US over just a five year span, it is beginning
to become clear that the politicians on the 21
st
century must begin to adhere to the secularist conception of
government that founders like Thomas Jefferson desired for the nation. Religious institutions and the influence that
they have within the political realm is something that will remain as long as the majority of the governed ascribe to
any religious ideology. Although religion is a conduit through which morality and virtue can reach and embed itself
within any common individual, it is not the only manner by which someone can become familiar with and practice
morality and virtue. A man or woman who maintains his or her morality for the sake of receiving some kind of
otherworldly reward in the afterlife is indeed less virtuous than the man or woman who maintains his or her
morality out of mere principle and does so without the existence of any ulterior motive.
It could be posited that the involvement of religious institutions in politics is a necessary evil within
American society just as long as they abide by the law like any other non-religious institution. There is an issue,
however, with the prevalence of exemptions that are given to religious organizations. This acquisition of political
and economic exempt status raises a significant amount of suspicion regarding the separation of church and state
and whether or not they abide by all of the laws and regulations that other non-religious institutions follow.
Churches claim that they are justified in acquiring tax exempt status as well as other forms of exemption from
policy on the basis that they are non-profit seeking organizations that offer a conduit through which the faithful can

3. derive spiritual and moral guidance. This conceived notion that those that adhere to any particular ideology that
provides an instantiation of the principles of morality and virtue can be exempt from carrying out certain actions
mandated by the state extends to not only groups and institutions but to individuals as well. Take, for example, an
individual that works for the government in some relatively significant capacity is asked to perform a task or set an
action in motion that directly contradicts the morality derived from that person's religious beliefs.
The individual has the choice of carrying out the task and acting contrary to that which he believes or he
can, in a non-military sense,conscientiously object to carrying out such a task on the basis of his morality and
religious belief. An individual objecting to carrying out a certain task and a religious group claiming tax exempt
status are two completely different examples of how religious belief can and is used to manipulate the system.
Washington was certainly correct in his assertion that morality and virtue are necessary sources whence the policies
that govern the governed are derived but, as we have seen throughout history, religion can often beget absolute
power and absolute power corrupts absolutely. With such a potentiality of abuse,the power that religion holds over
people in their political and social life is too dangerous to allow within the perfect conception of a governmental
system. It is a harsh reality, however,that religion is deeply rooted within the fabric of our identity as a society and
as individual American citizens. Despite a person's individuating religious or non-religious beliefs, we cannot stray
away from the fact that the US was founded by Puritans using the morality and virtuous nature of the religion that
they practiced. America was not founded by barbarians or nomadic tribes, it was founded by intellectually refined
people that derived the basic structure of their primordial government from the teachings and virtues of their faith.
As long as there remains a large majority of people in the United States that adhere to religious principles and
teachings, there will too exist the presence of religious influence in politics, thus religion will be considered a
political institution as long as its presence is significant throughout the country. Necessarily, as human beings and
their knowledge continue to evolve and religion becomes less and less relevant in our political lives, the country
must strive to separate the policy of state from the desires of the church.
Despite what the staunch atheist may believe, it is a necessity that religion is a political institution in the
United States on the basis that America operates on a popular democratic structure wherein a large majority of its
citizens ascribe to some religious ideology or another. There must exist a medium through which those affiliated
with a religious organization can have their voice heard pertaining to a particular goal or principle. This does not

4. necessitate,however, that religion is a necessary political institution in so far as there exist groups of non-religious
people that are entitled to equal representation. Albeit that morality and virtue are necessary components and
sources of governmental policy, they do not have to necessarily be derived from an affiliation with any religion.
American democracy allots the opportunity to practice any religion that you please on the basis that policy
implemented by government can in no way come between an individual and his God; the government would be
hard pressed to deny an individual the right to practice their own religion while simultaneously attempting to
formulate and implement policy. A human being must act as his or her own moral agent no matter where their
morality and virtue was derived; if virtue arises from religion, it need not be represented in political life, let the
morality speak for itself.