Governments are always trying to do something to inspire their peoplewhether it involves an ackowledgement of God or not. In the SovietUnion there were statues of various national heroes all over the place that were supposed toinspire people. They looked dumb, and that is not just my opinion, itis also the opinion of my neighbors who lived there. But why did theSoviet regime think that all of these statues were needed? Why wasLenin's body enshrined? Did they really believe that "religion is theopiate of the people"? Or did they just try to get rid of one religionin order to replace it with one that is agreeable to the ideals of aSocialist Utopia?

History is full of Utopian plans that involved getting rid of areligion that does not support a set of Utopian ideals in order toreplace it with one that does.

Czar Peter the Great wanted to drag Russia"kicking and screaming into the modern world". He felt that the RussianOrthodox Church was one of the institutions that was retarding theadvancement of Russian Society, so he created his own private backlashagainst the church hierarchy. He did not wish to destroy the Church, hejust wanted to make it subservient to the government. He did so bymaking the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church positions that wereto be personally appointed by the Czar.

Two centuries later, the people of Russia thought that they would havegreater religious freedom if they followed a leader who had created abacklash against the Czar ( and anyone else who was "exploiting thepeople") and replaced the Monarchy with a government that promoted"separation of church and state". They got separation of church andstate, all right. The number of Orthodox churches in Russia went frommore than 55,000 in 1914 to less than 500 in 1940. The state separatedthemselves from the church by getting rid of the church.

In spite of the best efforts of men like Lenin, Stalin, and Mao, a pureexample of a totally secular state that is void of any religiousinfluence does not exist, and never has. Look at the weird legendsabout the North Korean dictator. Here is an excerpt from wikipediaabout the birth of Kim Jung Il; "Kim Jong-il's official biographystates that he was born atop Baekdu Mountain (백두산) at 6 o'clock in themorning in northern Korea on February 16, 1942. The official biographyalso holds that his birth at Baekdu Mountain was foretold by a swallow,and heralded by the appearance of a double rainbow over the mountainand a new star in the heavens".http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong-il

The study of history is a study of events that were designed to be abacklash against a previous event. During America's founding era, theEnlightenment and the Great Awakening Revival were opposingphilosophies. Sometimes backlashes can cause people to reason, othertimes they cause bloodshed.

"Sprit of Laws" by Enlightenment philosopher Charles de Montesquieu was arguably thepolitical theory text most referred to by the writers of the U.S.Constitution. Montesquieu had a lot to say about the role of religionand the role of government. In order to have "moderate government"there is a role for religion and a role for government. Spirit of LawsChapter 24 section 16 is about "How the laws of religion correct theinconveniences of a political instituion".

There is a time and a place for separation of church and state. At thesame time, there needs to be a relationship between church and statethat includes dialogue, and that includes a place where one institutioncan compensate where the other institution lacks. History proves thatproblems are created when this relationship is destroyed, or when thechurch is altered to be a puppet of the state which is tolerated onlyif it becomes a channel for propaganda.

There is a balance that needs to be maintained in the U.S. today and in the future.