The issue at hand.

Whether it's evangelical Protestants planting Ten Commandments monuments on government property or Roman Catholic clergy coercing Catholic legislators with religious sanctions, the effort is the same, to make laws and practices conform to conservative Christian doctrines--to sanctify the state. So we address these matters head on in this issues cover stories. Jacob Rolls, drafter of a leading Ten Commandments amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, explains "Why Ten Commandments Displays on Government Property Are Unconstitutional." Robert Grant, a Humanist legal scholar who was raised Catholic, describes the Catholic hierarchy's recent policy of "Putting the Squeeze on Politicians."

Many will argue, of course, that this sort of problem is something of a constant in U.S. history. We ought to be used to it by now. From the nation's origins to the present, the American people have fought over the place and role of religion in law and society.

This, however, is no argument for retiring from the struggle. Cliche though it is, eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty. Furthermore, religious incursions into government have recently reached epidemic proportions. The evidence is the wide variety of areas affected. Not only do we face major controversies like abortion and the right to die but minor ones like the new Puritanism that has overtaken prime time cartoon shows and the Super Bowl. Producers and sponsors are running scared in an orgy of nervous self-censorship. This isn't just a cultural phenomenon, either. Hefty government fines are visited upon all who dare cross the somewhat vague and shifting line bordering "public decency," "family values" and "community standards." And, as Michael Fitzgerald shows in his lead article, "Goodbye, Mr. Fitz," the chill has reached down to what high school teachers can teach and what their students are free to speak or write about. Culturally, it even affects what the mainstream media says about the tsunami disaster and what it doesn't say about the war in Iraq, as Norman Solomon shows in his "Up Front" article.

So, is religion taking over the government? It certainly tries. But often the process works the other way. Politicians callously use religion to pursue their purely secular agendas--as church-state journalist Frederick Clarkson explains in this issue's "Church and State" column. The evidence is growing plainer that President George W. Bush's faith-based programs are, in truth, crony-based programs. They exist to create political allies and to reward them. In the name of God, churches are persuaded to render unto Caesar.

The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca put it best, "Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." That was a reality the framers of the U.S. Constitution wanted to change. The job isn't finished.