According to the
Pew Forum on religion in public life, most of the candidates believe that ceremonial deism should be the official religion of the United States.
QUOTE:
Christopher Dodd:
Dodd has said that the separation of church and state should be understood not as a strict barrier between the two but as a relationship where one can reflect the other.
QUOTE:
Mike Huckabee
He has said that the government "should have a hands-off attitude" toward religion, and he has called efforts to ban religious displays on public property "absurd."
QUOTE:
John Edwards
Edwards says he believes in the separation of church and state, but also thinks that there is a role for faith in public life. He said "freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom from religion,"
QUOTE:
Dennis Kucinich
Kucinich has said that "while our fathers understood well the importance of the separation of church and state, they never meant America to be separate from spiritual values."
QUOTE:
John McCain
We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here, they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.
QUOTE:
Barack Obama
Obama says he believes in the importance of the separation of church and state, but says that a "sense of proportion" should guide how it is enforced. He says that the phrase "under God" in the pledge of allegiance and voluntary student prayer groups on school property are two examples where conflict between church and state has been alleged, but should be less strictly policed.
QUOTE:
Fred Thompson
He wrote that "Many federal judges seem intent on eliminating God from the public schools and the public square in ways that would astound our founding fathers.
QUOTE:
Mitt Romney
Romney says the First Amendment does not mean that no religion should be
established, or that secularism should be established in place of religion.
For a libertarian, Ron Paul has a
lot to say about state sponsorship of religion:
QUOTE:
Ron Paul
The Christmas spirit, marked by a wonderful feeling of goodwill among men, is in danger of being lost in the ongoing war against religion.
Through perverse court decisions and years of cultural indoctrination, the elitist, secular Left has managed to convince many in our nation that religion must be driven from public view. The justification is always that someone, somewhere, might possibly be offended or feel uncomfortable living in the midst of a largely Christian society, so all must yield to the fragile sensibilities of the few. The ultimate goal of the anti-religious elites is to transform America into a completely secular nation, a nation that is legally and culturally biased against Christianity.
This growing bias explains why many of our wonderful Christmas traditions have been lost. Christmas pageants and plays, including Handel’s Messiah, have been banned from schools and community halls. Nativity scenes have been ordered removed from town squares, and even criticized as offensive when placed on private church lawns.
The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion.
