Separation of church & state: reality or fantasy?

John Locke by Herman Verelst

Despite appearances, church and state have not filed the divorce papers.

Thomas Jefferson said that government is not to interfere with religion; but interestingly enough I couldn’t find evidence of his having said that religion is not to interfere with government. In 1802 he wrote, “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God (…)”; and if true then it is easy to assume that religion indirectly interferes with government.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The usual interpretation of this is that the federal government besides being forbidden from passing laws to establish religions, it cannot designate an official religion for the nation either; however we are under the impression that the official religion in the United States is Christianity (notice how Presidential candidates strive to prove how Christian they are, how they abide by Christian values, lest they won’t be elected. Yes, the congress and the senate are religiously eclectic; nevertheless, it seems like the commander-in-chief needs to be Christian).
The 41st article (line 5) of the Portuguese Constitution says, “The Church and other religious communities are separated from the State and are free to organise themselves and, exercise their functions and services” but is the State separate from religion? Former socialist PM António Guterres, an observant Catholic, passed a bill forbidding supermarkets from trading on the Lord’s Day; then over a decade later socialist PM José Sócrates, a more spiritual liberal individual, reversed the decision and people could go back to shop on Sundays. Furthermore, in Portugal, Roman Catholicism is the de facto religion.
The first article of the French Constitution states that “La France est une République indivisible, laïque, démocratique et sociale.”(Transl: France is an undivided, secular, democratic and social Republic), yet most French holidays are religious holidays (Catholic, of course, making France therefore a de facto Catholic nation).

Many countries (ex: England, Brazil, Greece, Costa Rica, Monaco, Israel etc) are a good example of how a nation can openly declare its state religion and yet present a healthy balance between secularism and religion. However, despite their equilibrium and respect for other religions, there is one interesting common ground between them and those that openly defend separation of state and church: the heads of the state must profess the official religion of the country.

No matter how many turns humans may give to this subject the truth is that State and Church still have an extremely intricate relationship, due to the following reasons:

1. The state is ran by Men and, any man’s spiritual education will forcefully affect his thoughts, values, conduct and, thus, decision-making. 
2. The people elect politicians and, usually they are the vast majority who professes the state religion (be it either de facto or de jure). 

Is separation of church and state a reality or a fantasy? I’d say, a very interesting fantasy.