In spite of what the religious right would have you believe, religion (be it Christianity, Islam, J\udaism, Buddhism, Taoism, or any other) should NEVER mix in a democratic society. Any time when religion is allowed to intrude into the political process, democracy is threatened. Any time when religion does intrude into politics, both the religion and the political process are debased, and human rights and freedoms are threatened.

Throughout history we see what happens when religion comes to control the political process. In most Islamic countries, either the religion takes over the political process and becomes a dictatorship, or the country is racked with strife and terrorism as the attempt to gain control plays out. In Northern Ireland, the Catholics and Protestants fought for complete political control for many decades and the tension still exists today. In the middle ages, the Catholic asserted control over all thought, executed people for heresy, and conducted the Inquisition. And, many other examples could be cited.

There is a real moral dilemma when religious figures enter the political process. By means of their stature as religious leaders, they carry with them the image of official spokespersons for all religious and moral truths. So, when a religious leader issues s statement about anything with an apparent backing in the religion itself, the statement assumes coercive power. religious followers are expected to follow religious "truth" without question in order to prove their adherence to the faith. So a religious leader can form a personal opinion independent of his faith and couch his justification of the position of the position in theology and the pronouncement becomes almost an edict. Any member of the faith who disagrees becomes a non-believer, infidel, or heretic. No religious person wants to be so branded, so the pronouncement by a religious leader assumes a terribly coercive power -- almost tyrannical.
The simple fact is that far too many religious leaders (both clergy and lay-leaders) be they Christian, Jewish, or Islamic --deliberately and willfully engage in such activities today. They form personal opinions on political and social issues, couch those opinions in religious doctrine, and issue them as the "word of God." Plainly put, that is an immoral act of the worst possible kind of bullying. In this country today, too many religious .leaders have adopted the model of the late Jerry Falwell. Falwell was always a bully and as a teenager was known for picking physical fights and beating his victims to a pulp. When he became a religious figure, he simply changed the form of his bullying from physical fights to bullying them into following his opinions on all issues by "religious" pronouncements to pressure them into following his personal opinions. The worst example was the late Fred Phelps. And, ,the greatest irony is that in all religions, it is considered blasphemy when a person takes God's name in vain, or expresses his personal opinion and then labels his opinion as God's word.
Given these facts, when religion is allowed to enter the political process, the above is exactly what happens. This distorts and political process in many ways. First, it injects unfounded opinions into the political process, leaving the political process astray. Second, those who allow themselves to become dogmatic religious ideologues under the sway feel that they must follow the pronouncements to the letter and refuse to compromise in any way or be sinners. Ergo, this has become a major reason for the political gridlock which has racked our government in the U.S. today. It is also a major source of the incivility in public discourse introduced and maintained by the extreme political and religious right. Again an irony, unchristian incivility on the part of the religious right!
We must never allow religious ideologues to gain control of the political process in our country. Such control would destroy our democratic process and introduce a regime of religion-based tyranny like that in Iran. That would be a total abomination!!
We must reassert the complete separation between church and state if we want to remain a democracy. There is no other way. The matter is urgent!