church-state separation
Secular governance principle
Church-state separation is the principle that government and religious institutions should remain independent of each other.
In the United States, it derives from the First Amendment's prohibition on establishing religion.
The concept ranges from strict segregation of religion from public life to looser arrangements where government merely avoids favoring one faith over others: The court ruled the nativity scene on public property violated church-state separation.
- Thomas JeffersonThird American president
- First AmendmentConstitutional free expression guarantee
- pluralismCoexistence of differing views
- secularismSeparation of faith, state
- school prayerReligious recitation in education
under God · public square · religious liberty · faith-based initiatives · James Madison · founding fathers · liberal democracy · human rights · Reformation · constitutional law · toleration · judicial review · freedom of conscience · civil rights · Puritanism · religious exemptions · anti-establishmentarianism · individual autonomy
- church-stateestablishment clause, religious accommodation, state religion, religious establishment, disestablishment
- French CatholicismRoman Catholicism, Notre-Dame, Sacre-Coeur, Joan of Arc, Saint Bernadette
- school religionschool prayer, prayer in schools, religious education, religious instruction, religious studies
- secularizationsecularization, dechristianization, disaffiliation, secular state, secular society
- belieffaith, belief, belief systems, creed, dogma
- American ChristianityBaptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians
church-state separationtheocracy
Rule by religious authority
state religion · established church · ecclesiocracy · hierocracy · state church
church-state separationestablished church
Officially recognized national religion
state religion · anti-secularism · religious establishment · clericalism · religious law
church, churches, churched, churchly, churchman, states, stated, stating, stately