Constitutionally, we have it, but the "moral majority" and, sadly, our current administration (including now SCOTUS) are poised to damage that wall of separation more than ever before. This is why we all need to be supporting the Freedom from Religion Foundation, who fight this fight as hard as they can, but they need more resources.

We were making progress away from religious influence on public policy.
However, the last 30 years have seen that pendulum swinging back in the opposite direction.
Religious influence has been gaining ground, and they insist on forcing their
influence at every opportunity.

Too many people have stayed silent, not wishing to "offend" anyone.
To which I say, "fuck that".
The religutards need to be reminded to keep that bullshit to yourselves.
I don't care who I piss off.
It's a damned shame more people don't have the same attitude.
If they did, we wouldn't have to fight this garbage like we are.

We do NOT have to "respect" other people's religious beliefs.
By law, we only have to tolerate them. They get to have them, but that's it.
They should be reminded of that fact at every possible opportunity.

theoretically we have separation of church and state. in practice church is all OVER state, and state should be crying rape.

g

Congress opens & closes with prayer to a christian god. god is on our money, in the pledge, and the swearing in of testimony. I have heard of people being denied entry to the country due to their non belief. It permeates the culture.

Have you visited Utah? Lol

Have we separated church and state? Hell no! The Trumpers want to clarify this issue by melding them back together again as one. Pence, DeVoss, and others are onboard. The idea behind this is not really religion. It's just a means of controlling religion in order to get more out of people. If an idea is right according to your god beliefs then you will give all you have. I'm in forums where most people think an invisible Jesus is guiding Trump's hand and that Jesus is responsible for our laws and Constitution. These people think I should wake up. I think they should study real history.

We, as a country, SHOULD have completely and absolutely separated church and state, but there is too much evidence to the contrary. Too many people are religious, and apparently want our country's leaders to be religious (but only their religion, of course). Too many politicians apparently think that they need to either BE religious, or appear to be religious to get voted into whatever political office they hope to occupy. Too many politicians apparently have not read the constitution they have sworn to uphold, as there seems not too many reasons for ignoring that "separation of church and state"... <sigh>

No because there is such a thing as faith-based initiatives....federally funded....state funded. And we have "National Prayer Day."(for chrisakes) Faith based organizations get help from the government. [grantwatch.com]

In God we trust was added to money in 1956.
Under God was added to the pledge of allegiance in 1954. Both under Eisenhower. What other religious words or phrases are used in our government. From what I've read George Washington added, So Help Me God, after his swearing in pledge.

Churches are given tax exempt status. To qualify for this exemption the entity must prove they are a religious institution. The state decides who or what qualifies as a religious institution. So the government necessarily defines what is or isn’t considered a “religion”. Pretty entangled if you ask me.

Progressives and democratic administrations have attempted to do it and conservatives and republican administrations have attempted to stop and reverse the progress towards it at every - federal, state and local levels. Thanks to FFRF which keeps breathing life into it continuously. If I had a lot of money, I would give a lot to them. I am real fan of FFRF.

I don't know anyone who believes that.

Bingst said it, Erosion! Small steps in various states allowing the christians to get their nose under the tent. We now have a Supreme Court that thinks that it's okay to exclude LGBT from adoption, so more kids in foster care and good people denied. Don't know what's next but cadet bone spurs will happily go with it.

The GOP would see it changed back in dark ages times.

Yes, we have separation of church and state. There is no state sanctioned religion and we are perfectly free to practice any religion or none. Having the word “God” in the pledge of allegiance is not establishing a state religion. I don’t know why some of y’all are so sensitive about that unless you are insecure in your non-belief.

The separation of church and state in the USA is a constant strugglr between the forces of real constitutional democracy and evangelical christianity. The separation was much greater through the early 1970s. Since then, collusion between Republicans and evangelical leaders has eroded that separation to some degree. But, I do believe that the erosion can and will be reversed.

Absolutely not. Public schools are riddled with religion. The Pledge of Allegiance is still recited every day. There is still school prayer during assemblies and pep rallies. Ministers, pastors, priests, whatever are still invited into schools to talk to students.

It's actually kind of funny how that works. There are many countries where it doesn't matter what religion you follow as long as it is the one imposed on you or you can get killed for not fitting the molde. Here, as opposed to that approach, we have dozens of different religions and hundreds of denominations for us to freely choose and not choosing any is one of the options. I think that's the only separation we will get in a long time, the free will to choose or not to choose any of that crap.

That's a complicated question, and it also applies to racism. Strictly by the law of the land, the answer is yes. But if you examine the attitude of rank and file America, the answer leans to no.

If you had you would not let those religious nutters influence you so.

these are unconstitutional:
"in God we Trust" on the money
giving tax breaks to any religious organization
funding any public parks that contain crosses
any moments of prayer in congress while in session
providing the bible book to swear on any oaths (perhaps not if the athiest is not required to)
the white house christmas tree (calling it a christmas tree)
any taxpayer funded christmas parades or christmas activites
i'm sure there are more

I remember how unhappy a lot of people were when the words "under gawd" were added to the Pledge of Allegiance. (As a knee-jerk reaction to the intense fear of "godless communism" after WWII) Back then the majority of people were very vigilant about separation of church & state,even without much knowledge available as to how a theocracy, such as the Eastern countries, were horribly repressive.
Just frightening now, lot of very vocal people keep insisting we would be better off as a theocracy...old white guys, yes, the rest of us, not so much....

We were making inroads to have them separated until President Cheeto blew into town...

Too many people beleive in religion because that how they were brought up. Lambs to the slaughter and keeps them stupid.

I think religion's attack on the individual Reproductive Rights of women is more concerning then ever considering we have two sexual abusers on the Supreme Court.