The Kern County Chapter of Americans United, along with Freedom First, assembled an interfaith panel discussion on the separation of church and state on May 6 at Bakersfield College in an effort to understand the various religious standpoints in the community.
One speaker represented Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism and each addressed the issue of separation of church and state as well as two other issues, which each speaker believed to be “hot button issues of today.”
Rev. Dianne Ryder, from a Christian point of view, expressed her desire to keep church separate from state by discussing the “on-going experiment called democracy” and believes “the state shouldn’t be concerned with my faith.”
One of Rev. Ryder’s two selected “hot button issues” was same-sex marriages or unions, explaining she was uncomfortable with deciding if a loving union between two people of the same sex is right or wrong. However, she has no problem offering blessings upon it should it prove to be genuinely out of a “covenantal love.” Rev. Ryder believes the state can do its part by settling financial and legal matters when it comes to marital issues.
Imam Salim Morgan believed the contrary, as he represented Islam and thoroughly believes that “Islam is the state.” Imam Morgan, a Muslim convert, studied Islam in Saudi Arabia and is convinced that “religion to Muslims is everything in life,” so therefore is against the separation of church and state.
While Imam Morgan is a supporter of a union between church and state, he did address the issue of polygamy and declared his strict belief that “marriage is a religious phenomenon of which the state should not be concerned with.”
Representing the Jewish faith, Rabbi Cheryl Rosenstein declared that all should be “steadfast guardians of separation of church and state.” Rabbi Rosenstein explained the long history of abuse when religion and state are intertwined and chose to address taxpayer support for religious schools and social welfare issues.
“We should be willing to tax ourselves to come to the aide of those less able,” stated Rosenstein. All in all, the Rabbi believes government and religion will be purer the less they are mixed with each other.
Pandit Ashok Bhatt, who grew up in a Hindu temple from early childhood, dissected the issue of church/state separation by explaining “the state to me means authority. and the word ‘separation’ means that a particular practice should not be imposed.”
The Hindu faith practices that each individual is divine and teaches that one should work selflessly for the better of the majority. Bhatt insisted that church should not be associated with state by any means as “religion is practiced to make oneself better. Religion to us is a personal thing, your own way of communicating with your maker.”
Bakersfield resident Mike Miller was impressed by the idea of a panel discussion on such an issue and feels “a lot of things can come out of it.”
Miller pointed out Imam Morgan’s contradictory response to a question about how Saudi Arabia strictly prohibits the possession of Bibles after he claimed that Islam demonstrates tolerance for other religions everywhere except for Saudi Arabia where Mecca and Medina are located. Miller addressed this contradiction by stating, “The Muslim speaker speaks about tolerance, but they don’t even practice it in their most holy place.”
Devoted to the issue of separation of church and state, Americans United “works to preserve religious liberty and freedom of conscience as guaranteed by our Constitution.”