WHAT HAPPENED TO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE?

It used to be legal for serious researchers to use embryonic stem cells in medical research.  Then came born-again-Christian G W Bush putting his religious views into the mix and banning their use.  Next came another Christian as President but who, acknowledges science as not being governed by religious views whno made it legal/  Then came the religious powers again who went to court to make it illegal again.  A Judge Lamberth decided it was against the law so those who wish to be able to continue their research again went to the courts and the ban was stayed until the courts could look into the legalities more fully.  For a better look at this see-saw, click here to learn the specific players.

Wikipedia has an excellent historic view of the way the colonies were settled by several religions. 

Colonies with no established church

• The Province of Pennsylvania was founded by Quakers, but the colony never had an established church.
• West Jersey, also founded by Quakers, prohibited any establishment.
• Delaware Colony had no established church.
• The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, founded by religious dissenters forced to flee the Massachusetts Bay colony, is widely regarded as the first polity to grant religious freedom to all its citizens.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has the most recent statistics I could find.  However. I do not know on which forms filled out their statistics are based.  Many people, for many years, felt compelled to list a religion when , in fact, they did not attend a religious service no identify with anyh organized religion though they often filled in forms with the religion of their birth.  I believe people are tending away from that these days so the current census, when tabulated, will  reflect an altered balance.