I saw an article printed on Lucy's fridge last night (it's a habit of her Mum's), entitled "Faith and Patriotism", which was published in the New York Times on the 22nd October, 2004. (It's mirrored at that Free Republic site, as the NYTimes forces you to pay for it…)
It talks about how there is a common belief that 'Roman Catholics must not "impose their beliefs on society"' in order to "discourage serious debate". I must admit that I usually take this stance and don't believe that Catholics (or other religious beliefs that don't "fit in" with society) should be disregarded or not included in debates. However, I think this article has changed my perspective on it. The author of the article highlights that the act of "Lawmaking inevitably involves some group imposing its beliefs on the rest of us." Additionally, he says "Democracy depends on people of conviction expressing their views, confidently and without embarrassment." So if we disregard the views of the "extremes", then we're effectively working against the core idea of democracy.
He also says:
"The founders sought to prevent the establishment of an official state church. Given America's history of anti-Catholic nativism, Catholics strongly support the Constitution's approach to religious freedom. But the Constitution does not, nor was it ever intended to, prohibit people or communities of faith from playing an active role in public life. Exiling religion from civic debate separates government from morality and citizens from their consciences. That road leads to politics without character, now a national epidemic."
I had never thought of it this way, either. In my experience, religion is most spiritual (obviously), but also provides moral guidelines on how people should live their lives. As the author says, if members of these religions are prohibited from expressing their views, then you remove "morality" from the system, which doesn't leave us with much.
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