Work · 2003
Church and State
Church and State is a 2003 Flash short.
Key facts
- Title
- Church and State
- Year
- 2003
- Delivery format
- Macromedia Flash short, 550 × 400 pixels
- File
swf/faith.swf
The work
A stable title with a broad constitutional subject
“Church and state” can refer to establishment, free exercise, public funding, education, symbolism or political rhetoric.
Historical context
The phrase compresses a complex legal history
The text of the First Amendment begins with two protections concerning religion: Congress may make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. Later constitutional disputes have applied those clauses across questions of governmental involvement, individual practice, public institutions and expression.
Political commentary often reduces that changing doctrine to the shorter phrase “separation of church and state.”