Politics and Religion

Separation of Church and State in France -- today this democratic principal divides Christianity in the country and has ignited the possibility of a controversial alliance between evangelical Christians and Muslims. One may soon see a well known French bishop set up a series of events that not only forward his mission to spread Christianity throughout France and the Francophone but support Muslim growth in France as well, resulting in closer ties between the seemingly rival religions. Last week Nicolas Sarkozy, a French Interior Minister, appointed a commission to study possible changes in a law dividing the spiritual and temporal spheres, thereby challenging the hundred year old French law separating church and state. The law is based on three principles: the neutrality of the state, the freedom to exercise religion, and public powers related to the church. This law is seen as the backbone of the French principle la