“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment to the US Constitution (as well as the next nine) is a negative right against the government, not you. The First Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits the government from establishing a state religion or restricting your free access to religion. That is the full extent (or at least should be) of government involvement with religion.

Should the citizens of this representative republic understand the extent of the First Amendment and then DEMAND that their elected representatives do so also, there would not be a problem with religion.

Should the citizens of this representative republic (and their elected representatives) understand that this constitutional restriction may not be altered by any amount of coercion, bribery, lobbying, promises, deals, favors, interference, or promises; there would not be a problem with religion.

Should the people who participate in religion understand that they cannot simultaneously participate in politics; there would not be a problem with religion.

Should the people who participate in politics understand that they cannot simultaneously participate in religion; there would not be a problem with religion.

Thus, if you follow the US Constitution, you may (or may not) freely worship God. You may (or may not) freely give money to your religion. You may (or may not) freely give of your time to your faith. It is really this easy.

However, if you decide otherwise, if you want to muddle the waters that history clearly demarcates as a "VERY BAD IDEA", there will be a problem, not with religion, but with you, using religion as a cover for your actions and your thinly veiled attempts at seizing power, influence, money, or all of the above.

Support a (not the) separation of Church and State. Keep the money in different accounts. Govern one and not the other. Find solace and comfort with God or without.

It really is this easy.

In today's world there is real freedom of religion that can be supported by us. People seem to take the words free and equal to be synonyms. They are not which is why one religion is free to dominate politcally while supressing the other religions, at least in a political setting. There was a time when religions were not equal even though it was claimed they were. It was the same as a school writing assignment. A teacher saying you are free to write what you want as long as you stick to this topic, well that is not really being free to write what you want. There was a time when you were free to practice any religion as long as you recognized christianity as the main. We are at a time now however, that the freedom to practice any religion is a real thing. You can see it in our representatives, they are no longer all white chrisitan males. Maybe now we will see another religion rise up in politics and supress the others, maybe not, but they are free to do that. Once again freedom and equality are different entities, to be truly freedom of religion there cannot be a rule that each religion be represented equally. For each instance of equally there are freedoms given up. You must balance out how much freedom you want vs how much equality you want.