Our world has always been a very diverse place with many different cultures, people, languages, traditions and rules. This diversity resulted in shaping many different religions. Some are more popular and accepted by more people, some have very few followers. In medieval times religions were viewed and used as political tools serving to unite nations. Due to multiple invasions and conquests some of the world’s religions became more dominant than others; they have stronger representation on the world’s arena and millions of supporters. Politics and religion have always been the most sensitive topics. Discussion of these topics often is avoided, because it is a well known fact that such talks can easily lead to arguments and conflicts, where no one wants to agree or compromise.
In the modern world there is a tendency to isolate politics and religion from each other. This is done intentionally, because it is believed that these two aspects of people’s lives cannot and should not be mixed. This belief is based on several arguments. The Constitution of the United States of America and its first ten amendments, which are based on the Bill of Rights, declare the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the country. The first amendment expresses the freedom of religion for the people of the United States. According to its text, the government is prohibited to interfere with a person’s choice of religious beliefs. Besides, the government has absolutely no right to establish any religion as national and limit or force the citizens to follow certain beliefs and confessions. There are multiple potential dangers coming from the mix of religion and politics. For example, the politicians may create impacts on the citizens in order to collect votes and encourage the population to elect a certain candidate. Yet, both religion and politics are huge aspects of people’s lives, this is why complete separation of these two things is impossible.
Politics and religion may not clash in the legal orders or laws, yet they constantly clash within people, who participate as subjects and objects of these rules and laws. In the modern world several global movements occurred, they involve many people and they explore the mix of politics and religion. For example, the “Pro-life, pro-choice” movement is designed to cause a lot of arguments about philosophical, ethical and religious questions about the source and divine origin of life and prohibit abortions. Some of the modern schools are trying to make religion and theology a necessary part of education there leaving the students and their parents no choice of religious beliefs. A right for euthanasia is also being argued about from the religious points of view. A diverse country such as the United States of America has citizens and visitor, who belong to many different religions, it also has many atheists, all of these people are willing to use their freedom of religion, and this is why they protest against all kinds of limitations of their spirituality and opinions. In the contemporary society the political world has minimal influence on the people’s religious preferences, yet, it is often forgotten that religious organizations should also stay away from politics and not interfere with people’s choices or create any restrictions. The biggest arguments of people supporting the mix of religion and politics is that constitutional laws are based on religious morals, yet this argument omits the fact that these laws remain the same in most of the world’s countries and all of these countries have different dominating religions.
The modern world has learnt from the mistakes of the past, when religion and politics were united and the legal services were allowed to distribute limitations and punishments due to what was considered correct and incorrect according to different religious norms and sets of beliefs. These were the times when religious discrimination was flourishing, the times where one confession could encourage its people to confront the followers of some other religion or religious branch. Many wars were fought on the basis of religious preferences, and people that disagreed to accept a newly established “proper” religion were executed or imprisoned. These were the times where a citizen of a country could be judged for not believing or believing in “wrong” gods. The world of today knows what kind of chaos and horror stands behind the merger of religion and politics, this is why in the contemporary countries such mix is being accurately watched and dealt with as soon as it occurs.