What is the major parties' stance on separation of church and state?
The conservative ideology, social conservatives, which tend to be more religious and the Republican party which has had a constituency that's more religious says, "Separation of church and state, yes" which means no official state endorsement of any particular religion. There's no official state religion, like Islam in Iran, or something else like that. Or like the Congregational Church in New England up until the 1830s. But that doesn't mean that there has to be absolute neutrality on religion, and you can't allow religion into the public square. So, for instance, the Republican party's more willing to accommodate religion in things like school vouchers which is public money given to parents and they can choose to go to a Catholic school or an Evangelical school or a Jewish school, whatever, so the public money can go to religious institutions as long as the state isn't saying, "This religion is more legitimate than this religion" directly. The Democratic party and its more liberal, more secular constituency is looking more for a strict neutrality. Much more for a government's non-involvement, to the point of government actually trying to run away from religion in some aspects. So that things like vouchers, they say, "No, you can't do that." Or the faith based initiative, which were federal grants being given to things like Salvation Army, or Catholic charities. Or to do welfare and social work, and that sort of thing. They say, "You can't do that," because indirectly it might lead some people to think that the government favors one religion over another and you can't do that. So they're looking for much more of a clear gulf of bigger separation between government and religion so that there's no perception of any sort of entanglement. Whereas the Republican party and the more religious conservatives are more accommodating of religion in the public square.
