seperation of church and state

wat do u think? does it protect the church from the state or is it the other way around?

At the moment, it does nothing but cause people headaches.

Both. Of course it stops the state imposing the will of the church on unsuspecting citizens, it also prevents the church from being corrupted by power.

I'm not in favor of secularism though, I am in favor of pluralism.

>>3
That's true. James Madison argued for pluralism in Federalist Papers #10. I'll be willing to bet the Founding Fathers didn't argue for pure secularism, instead they felt that keeping the church and state separate was mutual for both. For the majority of western society I think this approach works out rather well.

http://constitution.org/fed/federa10.htm

>>4
Well, yes.  Before the Civil War many Eastern states had official state churches.  The reading of the Constitution that was universal then was that the First Amendment prohibited the Federal government and solely the Federal government from such religious exercises.  States were not merely permitted but expected to have official, government-sanctioned churches, so long as they were Christian and Protestant.

This all fell by the wayside after the Civil War, and much else besides.