ANOTHER REASON FOR SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE

In the US, driver's licenses serve as identification. As I recall from a couple of years ago, a Muslim woman in Florida refused to take off her veil for her picture. The court decided that law supersedes religious practice, at least in so basic an American law. The Archbishop of Canterbury believes adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion. Dr Williams said an approach to law, which simply said, "there's one law for everybody and that's all there is to be said, and anything else that commands your loyalty or allegiance is completely irrelevant in the processes of the courts - I think that's a bit of a danger". "There's a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law, as we already do with some other aspects of religious law." I do not know where else law gives in to religion though some customs may.

Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world religions — their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir — is dangerous, he says.

His new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn't, argues "that everyone needs to grasp Bible basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of other faiths."

Belief is not his business, says Prothero, who grew up Episcopalian and now says he's a spiritually "confused Christian." He says his argument is for empowered citizenship.

"More and more of our national and international questions are religiously inflected," he says, citing President Bush's speeches laden with biblical references and the furor when the first Muslim member of Congress chose to be sworn in with his right hand on Thomas Jefferson's Quran. Judging from the current crop of politicians, would it matter which book they got sworn in on? If one does not fear the wrath of God, what hypocrisy does the ''swearing in' represent? Have we not witnessed enough religious people violate laws from within the churches they represent?

It would appear that there are 22 significant religions recognized. Can you imagine how hectic it would be if there were 22 separate sets of laws here in the United States and as many people breaking the new ones as all break the ones we have today? For example, people go to jail here for pushing marijuana. "Religions always reflect the social and geographical environment out of which they emerge, and Jamaican Rastafarianism is no exception: for example, the use of marijuana as a sacrament and aid to meditation is logical in a country where a particular strain of 'herb' grows freely. Emerging out of the island of Jamaica in the latter half of the century, the religious/political movement known as Rastafarianism has gained widespread exposure in the Western world."

It may work in the UK to start making all kinds of exceptions to laws, but I think it would be far too complicated here in the States. Does it mean that we should allow female genital mutilation in the US because a religion tells us to do so? I would worry if we, as a country, tried to push that one through. In fact, I worry enough about how the country is being run right now!