Church and State, Religion and Politics:

The question of religion and politics is not the same as the question of church and state. Failure to make this distinction results in confusion. The problem of church and state has to do with institutions and practices. Neither must trespass the boundaries that define their legitimate sphere of influence. Here the concept of separation is valid. Thorny problems arise in two particular areas. 1. The first involves trying to steer between avoiding an establishment of religion and permitting its free exercise. Prayer in public schools and is among the most contentious. 2. A second range of problems arises when religious belief and practice conflict with secular law.
The problem of religion and politics defines another set of issues. Church and state deals with the relationship of institutions that are independent of each other. Religion and politics has to do with two spheres of activities in the life of the same persons. Citizens who belong to religious groups are also members of the secular society, and this dual association generates complications. Religious beliefs have moral and social implications, and it is appropriate for people of faith to express these through their activities as citizens in the political order. The fact that ethical convictions are rooted in religious faith does not disqualify them from the political realm. However, they do not have secular validity merely because they are thought by their exponents to be religiously authorized. They must be argued for in appropriate social and political terms in harmony with national values.

In both cases, we should be prepared to deal with complexities, ambiguities, and overlapping realms in which practical discernment must find workable principles to guide us that are as compatible with fundamental Constitutional imperatives as human reason can devise.

A Why don't you cite the source of the excerpt you posted. The full article can be found here?

When you do not it leaves the impression that you steal the text and is presenting it as your own.

In any event, this article makes the point I made to you earlier.

One of the problems that manifests itself is based on a sentence in the article. Many followers of religion assume that atheists do not have ethics. This is completely wrong. In many cases, atheists are better citizens.
As Michel Despland of Concordia Univ. states,
" A secular society is the only one where you can have freedom of religion." a Theocracy, while boasting about religious freedom (as Muslims like to do in "no coercion in religion") is ab initio at odds with itself...for it will necessarily put the state religion above all others...no matter which way you cut it, it will not be freedom. Look at the nonsense the religious conservatives are causing with their animus against reproductive choice...no abortion in some states.(forgetting for a second the ambiguity of the term in the common comprehension).