[Invincibly Ignorant]

Religious toleration as a principle is a product of the accidents of English and American society in the 18th Century. When one takes a social methofology and make sit into a creed, we get something like what happened in France. The State becomes the Church.

Seems to me that's happened somewhere else once upon a time. Gee, I wonder where.....

[RobbyS]

In a democracy (civil government is more accurate) the churches are mandated to lobby to influence the government. If you demand absolute separation of church and state, then you give rise to the Moral Majority. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That is why the ACLU lobbies the courts, which are anti-democratic, to forstall any reaction.