Shane Claiborne Quotes

There the union of Church and State tends strongly to paralyze some of the members of the body of Christ. Here there is no such influence to destroy spiritual life and power.

I believe in the separation of church and state, but I do not believe in the separation of politics from religion.

As both Christianity and Judaism have done, Islam can not only survive but thrive in a secular state. Once disassociated from coercive power, it will witness a renewal of spirituality….The secular state has not killed religion; rather, it has put a brake on the state’s manipulation of religion. It took three centuries of efforts by many European philosophers and several revolutions for this fundamental nuance to be developed, accepted, and made understandable to the masses.

I think here is the irony of American history. We don't have an established church. When you have an established church nobody takes religion as seriously as we do here. We have a free market in religion. The religious groups are competing with each other.

The disconnection of Church and State was a master stroke for freedom and harmony.

Blasphemy and sedition (meaning the truth about Church and State).

Freedom of religion has been replaced by freedom from religion.

Church and state are, and must remain, separate.

History makes the point time and time again No greater mischief can be created than to merge the power of religion with the power of government.

Mingling religion with politics may be disavowed and reprobated by every inhabitant of America.

The divorce between church and state should be absolute.

When church and state are separate, the effects are happy, and they do not at all interfere with each other: but where they have been confounded together, no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that have ensued.

To me the separation of church and state is a thread that ought to run through public policy so that we can always recognize that we make laws in this country, based not on theology of any particular group, but on the basis of a commonly shared values of the Constitution itself.

Religion mustn't interfere with the state - so one of the basic Democratic principles as we know it in America is the separation of church and state.

The First Amendment...does not say that in every respect there shall be a separation of Church and State....Otherwise the state and religion would be aliens to each other - hostile, suspicious, and even unfriendly....The state may not establish a 'religion of secularism' in the sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion, thus preferring those who believe in no religion over those who do believe.

The separation of church and state is necessary partly because if religion is good then the state shouldn't interfere with the religious vision or with the religious prophet.

A nation that is Christian at its heart doesn't need to write it into law.

If we should put god in the Constitution there would be no room left for man.

The union of Church and State is not to make the Church political, but the State religious.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that sanctifies the separation of church and state.

Separation of church and state is the big club pulled out to beat back the Christians .

Thomas Jefferson declared, stating that he was speaking on behalf of the other founding fathers, ...(that) we should build a wall between the church and state.

There must be a realm of truth beyond political competence, that's why there must be a separation of churches, but if religion is bad and a bad religion is one that gives an ultimate sanctity to some particular cause.

We believe in separation of church and state, that there should be no unwarranted influence on the church or religion by the state, and vice versa.

There is no relationship here between Church and State. Religious liberty has its unalterable place, along with civil and human liberty, in the very foundation of the Republic. I hold it [religious intolerance] to be a menace to the very liberties which we boast and cherish.