State Sponsored Religion 
or
Official Religion 
(This page was last updated on 26 August 2010 at 23:29 )

We as Americans should always thank the Supreme Being that there is no State Sponsored Religion in the United States of America.  We were lucky that many, if not most, of our founding fathers were Deists instead of being followers of any of the so-called Revealed Religions such as Christianity, Islam or Judaism. 

All governments should avoid sponsoring, embracing or supporting any Religion, just like they should avoid condemning any Religion.

Countries with a State Sponsored Religion have very little if any Freedom of Religion.

Freedom of Religion did not exist in Europe when the Catholic Church was the Official State Religion of the various countries.  Europe now has more Freedom of Religion than it had when the Catholic Church was in power.  Christianity (Catholicism until a few hundred years ago) was forced upon the people of Europe by the Kings and by the Popes who used the Inquisition to force the population to at least say that they agreed 100% with Christianity, which at that  time was the Catholic Church.  Fortunately the Pope has lost most of his power over most countries. About 83% of the population of the Earth no longer cares what a Pope wants or thinks. Pray that the Pope, or any other religious leader, never again gets the power to force his, or her, religious beliefs upon others under threat of torture or death by Burning at the Stake.

When Protestants ruled countries they behaved not a bit better than the Catholics behaved when they ran a country.

People to this day who live in Muslim countries have virtually no Freedom of Religion in those countries. 

We should pray daily to the Great Architect of The Universe that America never becomes a Christian nation, or a nation where any religion becomes the State Sponsored Religion.

No church should ever be able to force any person to give money to the church.  Even in America all people, even those who do not belong to any church, have to pay extra taxes because most churches are exempt from paying taxes.  Churches should be taxed just like any other entity.  Churches should not be tax exempt.  By being exempt from paying taxes all the other people have to pay more taxes to help support the government services that the Churches receive but do not have to pay for like roads, fire and police departments and other services.  We need to start taxing Religions just like any other business.  Religions are in competition to acquire your money just like McDonalds and Burger King.