What prevented religion from gaining much influence on politics in the USA?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 362.

How can you comment on relations between church, religion and government in the United States?

What are the largest churches in the US nowadays?

Pre-reading task

Discuss with your partner(s) what you have read or heard about religion in the United States. Think of the following questions:

· Are the Americans a religious nation?

· What is the state religion in the US?

· What are the main religious holidays in the US?

2. Reading for specific information

Read the text quickly to answer the following:

Americans have been extremely careful to separate church, state, religion and government. The Constitution, specifically the First Amendment, forbids the government to give special favors to any religion or to hinder the free practice of any religion. As a result, there are no church taxes in the United States, nor is there an official state church or a state-supported religion. There are no legal or official religious holidays.

There are no political parties in the United States that have "Christian" in their names. Yet surveys show that religion continues to be quite important to many Americans, especially when compared with people in other countries. Throughout American history, there have been periods of religious revivals which come and go. If there is a "return to religion" at present, then it is associated with the more "fundamentalist" denominations. These church groups are usually more conservative and orthodox in their religious beliefs and practices.

Since Americans are free to form and follow any religious belief or religion they wish, there are a great many beliefs, denominations and churches in the United States. The Roman Catholic church is by far the single largest, with about 52 million members. Although, there are approximately 78 million Americans -who might call themselves "Protestants", they are distributed among many different, independent churches. There is no one church or church group that speaks for all Protestants or would be listened to by all.

Although religion plays an important role in the personal lives of many Americans, it has relatively little real influence on political matters. The size of America, the tradition of religious toleration, and the separation of Church and state by law, as well as the extreme variety of religious backgrounds of Americans have prevented religion from gaining much influence on politics.

3. After-reading task.