We see demonstrators using religious slogans to gain political influence, and Supreme Court justices questioned over whether the Ten Commandments should display on government property.

The issue of separating church and state is one of the biggest conflicts in today's society. According to Cherniss (1998): "For all of the secularization and liberalization of society, religion continues to be a driving force in people's beliefs and behavior. In our own times, in our own country, religion has lost none of its inspiring and disruptive power. It has not, as some critics of American society have claimed, receded from the public sphere, scorned by secularists, mourned by the virtuous, and ignored by the majority. It is present everywhere, and both sustains our societies and threatens our liberties."

While religion and the clergy no longer have the same authority as it did a century ago, religious and quasi-religious leaders and communities remain central...
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