I, for one, strongly agree with strict separation of church and state.  Which is not the same as "government [having] the authority to take away personal freedoms such as freedom on religion".  You, and we all, enjoy the freedom established by the US Constitution. That Constitution guarantees freedom OF religion as well as freedom FROM religion (i.e. separation of state and church).  I find it tantamount to religio-fascist usurpation of both the American Constitution and Republic when certain religious minorities (so called Americhristian fundamentalist sects, not very unlike the Taliban) want to burden everyone else living on these shores with their yoke of narrow-minded religious oppression while claiming "religious freedom" for no one but themselves.  Had Dante been alive today, he would relegate such people to Hell, at the very darkest regions as described in his Inferno.  And yes, I do believe in government curtailing excessive kleptobankruptocapitalism! Social Justice = Gospel!