The seperation of Church and State

With the 2008 presidential election upcoming, one certainly sees enough of the candidates throughout the various media outlets. Every minute detail, every outfit of Hillary’s, every past vote of Obama’s, every story of McCain’s past, is presented to the general populace for consumption and meditation. However, one aspect of American politics conveys itself in the media; one that shakes my personal faith in the foundations of the government. Religion. On the television, flooding the papers, and spewed across the Internet, one can find any religious view of any candidate and what their plans regarding religious voters are.
I am a firm believer in the doctrine of the separation of church and state. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution strictly prohibits the federal government from establishing a state religion, or oppressing any particular individual’s exercise of their own religion. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, expressed that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God.” This would imply that religion is a personal matter, and does not require integration into the civic duties of humanity. Jefferson expresses the rhetoric contained in the first amendment, about the prohibition of a state-established religion or the restriction of anyone’s exercise of their own, “thus building a wall of separation between Church & State,” in Jefferson’s words. From an objective point of view, it seems quite clear the intentions of a Founding Father to separate the affairs of churches and religions from the workings of government.
Contrarily, modern politics exists much differently. Faith proves to be a deciding factor in many people’s vote, and each candidate must court a faction of the nation’s religions to gain votes. In 2004, many citizens voted for George W. Bush on the basis that he was a “good Christian man,” and took little consideration into his actions as president, his views as a candidate, and his supporters and criticism. Have a person’s particular rituals and relations with their God become so important to the personally intruding public of America?
Apparently so, as several criticisms of Barack Obama stem from the mistaken belief that he practices the Islamic faith. The American public view of Islam is influenced directly by the media reporting the activities of extremists of Muslim faith. The criticism was intended to associate Obama with the negative attention of extremism of one particular religion. A human’s personal beliefs are strictly that; personal. They are not for the world to scrutinize, and shame on any candidate who flaunts their religious beliefs simply to attract voters.
To quote Mike Huckabee,
“…it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."

That sound was a bulldozer coming through the wall between Church and State. There exists such a disregard to that separation in American politics today that that man has eight states in his favor.
Unfortunately, there are many incidents in which religious faith and civic duties become interconnected. The mixture is volatile and hazardous to the population. Truly, the lack of distinction between personal faith and civic duties to citizens manifests itself in political observations today, which frightens me as a rational person to be subject to anyone who claims to interpret the will of God for the common good of the people.