Religion and Politics, the Transatlantic Dimension
Ray Suarez, author of The Holy Vote recently toured four European cities with GMF talking about religion and politics in the United States. You can read a general readout from his tour and also read an interview with Suarez on Jim Lehrer’s NewsHour here.
One thing that wasn’t necessarily talked about in depth on his tour was the effect the strong relationship with religion and politics in the United States has on transatlantic affairs. Europeans are often mystified why the country that was founded on the separation of church and state now has such a strong relationship between government and religion. Suarez pointed out that this relationship is somewhat skewed in reality because the religious in America is still a small population, but a powerful small population. The Bush years have magnified this effect with his close relationship with the religious right.
Questions that come to mind…..Is the US still a country that values the separation of church and state? If it is true that the religious right is actually a minority, how do you counteract their power? How does this affect the transatlantic relationship?