ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes not only that there is a firm constitutional basis for religious involvement in politics but also that encouraging such involvement is a sound and healthy component of the political process. It examines the reasons for widespread opposition to religious involvement in politics. The religion clauses of the First Amendment declare that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". Structural separation involves severing formal legal and systemic ties between religion and the polity. The basic rationale of transvaluing separation is that religion is a private matter, not only in the sense of being nongovernmental, but in the sense of being something intensely, even exclusively personal. An exploration of the specific types of separation may be valuable as a means of clarification. In the West, with few exceptions, nations have had a structural separation of church and state since the third century.
