Alan Dershowitz Quotes

There's a reason we seperate Church and State. The reason for the richness and the diversity of religion in this nation is because of the seperation of Church and State, and there are people out there who can't wait to make this nation a nation of one religion... THEIR religion.

The problem is efforts by liberals to establish a wall between religion and society, in the guise of maintaining the wall between church and state.

I believe that religion should be totally separated from the state. That's not the way it is today, not even in Sweden.

We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate.

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

That's why I believe in a Constitution which separates church from state. I've seen what happens when they get in cahoots.

I think the founding fathers believed religion shouldn't interact directly with government.

It is not classified as a pagan religion. The so-called New Age activities and this are not called religions and therefore don't come under the prohibition of mingling church and state that we have in this country.

Government needs to stay out of the religion business altogether.

We early freed ourselves from the incubus of a State Church.

In this country there is no alliance between church and state, no established religion, no tolerated religion—for toleration results from establishment

Let the national legislature once perform an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, and it will have passed its legitimate bounds.

T]he prevailing opinion in Europe, England not excepted, has been that religion could not be preserved without the support of government nor government be supported without an established religion that there must be at least an alliance of some sort between them. It remained for North America to bring the great and interesting subject to a fair, and finally a decisive test

What is crucial is that a government practice not have the effect of communicating a message of governmental endorsement or disapproval of religion.

We have a separation of state and church. The laws of the country are not subject to the Koran.

The United States may be a religious nation. But it is also a nation with a strong commitment to separation of church and state.

Total separation of church and state was considered the best safeguard for the health of each. As [Andrew] Jackson explained, in refusing to name a fast day, he feared to 'disturb the security which religion now enjoys in this country, in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.'

the separation of church and state grew out of a desire, not so much to protect government from religion, but to protect religion from government.

The secular state is the guarantee of religious pluralism. This apparent paradox, again, is the simplest and most elegant of political truths.

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.

By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars.

The history of governmentally established religion, both in England and in this country, showed that whenever government had allied itself with one particular form of religion, the inevitable result had been that it had incurred the hatred, disrespect and even contempt of those who held contrary beliefs.

I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an Atheist. We have separation of church and state in the United States of America.

I questioned the faithful of all communions; I particularly sought the society of clergymen, who are the depositories of the various creeds and have a personal interest in their survival ... all thought the main reason for the quiet sway of religion over their country was the complete separation of church and state. I have no hesitation in stating that throughout my stay in America I met nobody, lay or cleric, who did not agree about that.

Growing up after the Second World War in a Jewish family, I really understand that, and have members of my family who are very committed to this concept. My grandfather's first name was Israel and he thought it was his country. In my own sense of this issue as an American Jew, I have been on both sides of this. At this point I think it is very important for there to be separation of religion and state. It's not good for Jews. It's not good for Muslims. It's not good for Christians. The marriage of state and religion is inherently problematic.