American Constitution and Religious Freedom -- Fintan O’Toole: Is America's democracy under threat? (1)

In Mr. O'Toole's eyes, as an outsider to America, there are concerning factors that might pose threat to America's democracy (I kill for great writers' perspectives on current politics thus making this summary for myself).

1. One of the most constitutive aspects of the creation of America, as well as has been taken for granted and increasingly threatened, was the separation of church and state. This Jeffersonian idea of "nobody could be free if there was a state church" constructed America's religious plurality. And this was one of the most radical, admirable, and important statements that were written in the American constitution. This statement was not an anti-religion statement, on the contrary, it was a guarantor of religious freedom. 

The American constitution was written in the 18th century, it was in its time such an extraordinary and inspiring document, therefore we find it difficult to think of it other than a sacred text. Statements such as taking religion out of the state were not only a brilliant political construct for the creation of the United States, but also were fundamental statements about the human condition and about how human beings can interact freely with each other. However, because it has been viewed as a holy writ, rather than a historical and political construct from a specific time, there is a natural tendency to put religion back into the state to make the constitution itself kind of quasi-religious.    

In contrast to constitutions such as German and Japanese which were developed in the 20th century, precisely after WWII, those were using American constitutions as fundamental frameworks, but much easier to adapt to changing circumstances. So one of the great tension in the American system is that because ways of changing the American constitution is very very difficult, the supreme court becomes an overly powerful arbiter. Also, a lot of unenumerated rights were not written down in the constitution, thus it has become a difficult business because America doesn't have a process for public and democratic engagement in changing the constitution.