Students learned religion has flourished in America more than any other country in the world on Monday afternoon.

Dr. Ronald E. Flowers, retired Texas Christian University professor of religion, gave the lecture "Wall Between Church, Mosque, Temple and State: A Growing Issue" Monday at 3 p.m. in Room 130 of the Environmental Education, Science and Technology building.

In his lecture, Flowers defined religious freedom, giving categories of church and state relations, and answered questions from students on the nature of politics interfering with church and state.

"America is a secular state but is enormously influenced by religion," Flowers said. "I am against the idea that the nation was founded on Christian ideas. You never see the mention of God, Christianity or Jesus in the Constitution except in Article 6."

Flowers gave four categories of church and state relations, which included hostility, establishment, toleration and religious freedom. He gave vivid examples of each category and thoroughly showed how other countries treat religion within their society.

He talked about how China's police and military are forbidden to be religious and if a religion is unregistered the government will destroy its property. "That's a fairly hostile environment," he said.

Flowers said nations such as Saudi Arabia had little religious freedoms where Islam is the official religion and the law requires all citizens to be Muslim. Their constitution is the Qur'an and the Sunna, which are the writings, sayings and teaching of scripture and the prophet Muhammad.

After presenting the religious limitations for multiple countries, it was noticeably easier for him to present the religious freedom in the United States. "The U.S. was the inventor of this church state relationship," he said. "In America, one can be religious or not, and hold any belief without interference." After the lecture, Flowers encouraged questions that would inform students more on the politics of religion. Rick Pride III, Sherman junior, expressed his opinion of what he felt about a separation between church and state.

"I think that the separation of church and state is not a good thing," Pride said. "For example, in court when you put your hand on the Bible and swear to God to tell the truth, the state is trusting you not to lie. If you are not a Christian or don't believe in God, what is really preventing you from lying?"

Flowers, later on, explained that there is empty symbolism by swearing on the Bible and that every court has an exception, such as a person can say "On my honor."

"The founders of this nation did not want a disestablishment rather they wanted to make sure the government could not interfere with people's religious beliefs," Flowers said.

"The wall between church and state is becoming more porous."

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