Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Thursday, Mar 13, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Tamil Nadu
CHENNAI: Both India and the United States profess to be secular states. Both have strong religious groups that function within their societies and both will shortly face major elections. “You can’t look at the U.S. election process, particularly this year, without considering the religious ramifications of it and the religious history of the U.S., particularly in the last 30 years,” Vice-Consul Brian Simmons told an audience at the American Consulate during a discussion on religion in the U.S. The First Amendment to the Constitution created a wall of separation between the Church and the State. But, as Consulate-General David Hopper pointed out in his opening address, this “has not prevented religion and the intersection between religion and government from being much debated, and sometimes controversial.” Discussion on the controversies ragging in the U.S. included whether government-funded schools should have morning prayer, whether States can enforce religious teaching and teaching of evolution, sex education, abortion and bioethics in their schools. The message from the panellists, all of whom were from the consulate, boiled down to this: America has many issues unresolved, but its people have faith in the legal system that balances their constitutional rights. The U.S. legal system was set up so that these tensions could be debated within a framework that allowed the country to move forward, said Consul for Economic/Political Affairs Scott Woodard. But how far do religious beliefs affect law makers? Since 2006, the U.S. has had a Supreme Court Bench that is a majority Roman Catholic. “Will it affect us? We don’t know,” said Mr. Brian Simmons. “It’s possible that … their collective Roman Catholic background could colour their decisions for the future.” Powerful forceThe evangelical Christianity had been a powerful force in politics over the past 30 years, but this election, he said, was seeing a sea change. The movement, while not diminishing in numbers, was fractioning: its younger generation was beginning to support the issues of peace, poverty and the environment instead of abortion and stem cell research. It was the least religiously affiliated candidate that won the Republican nomination, he pointed out. On the other hand, Democratic nominee Barack Obama had found it necessary to stress his Christian faith over his Islamic family roots. Whether or not this is a sustained phenomenon in the U.S., only the time will tell.
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