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The interaction of the church and the state has been a topic of discussion for centuries but it assumes new dimensions in the multicultural and multiethnic societies in which we live today. To what extent do church doctrine and religious belief continue to influence our ethical judgments, political decision making, laws and the implementation of policy, and to what extent is such influence both consistent with and desirable for a secular society?
In this paper, we argue that it is inevitable that the law and the law making process will be influenced by the church and religious beliefs and that this is unobjectionable. Moreover, despite our initial reservations about the church intervening directly in the court process, we have concluded that there is no logical basis on which such intervention can be precluded. We suggest that courts should examine carefully submissions from churches and other bodies to determine whether the points made are essentially legal principle or doctrine and that the latter should be regarded more sceptically. We do not, however, provide a clear test to distinguish legal principle from doctrine.
1. WAYS IN WHICH RELIGION INFLUENCES ETHICS
Religions have developed and required the observance of moral precepts since humans organised themselves into societies and cultures. While many people believe that even the West's currently dominant secular democratic systems derive from the Judaeo-Christian moral culture, an equally arguable position is that deeper, naturalistic and inescapable truths about how humans live together underpin all religious/moral cultures, and that different systems develop within different historical contexts. Whatever theory is true, there will be real differences between the ethical systems of different historical periods and national states. In this paper, we will not focus on the influence of religion on the nature of ethics as such, but on questions concerning how religion influences developments in policy and the law.
2. WAYS IN WHICH RELIGION INFLUENCES POLICY AND LAW
The church participates in the development of the law in different ways. Some of these we see as inevitable, such as when individual politicians vote according to a religiously informed conscience. Others we see as legitimate, as when churches and their members lobby politicians to effect changes to legislation. We raise questions concerning a third category of influence, which is...