Religion and politics, together?

The New York Times reported that Washington University in St. Louis will be opening a new academic center for the study of the intersection between religion and politics called the John C. Danforth Center. The former senator states that he does not want to cause controversial debate at the center, but rather wants to promote the understanding of how the two ideas of religion and politics can work together.

I think my problem with this center is that I don't understand what they are going to be teaching. What issues with religion can be resolved in order to better suit politics. I certainly hope they are not suggesting any type of change in the separation of church and state. Plus, I don't see where the problem is since many of the members of Congress and the government are very religious. Where is the problem between the coexisting? I just don't see it. To me this center just sounds like a way for the former priest to promote a greater influence of re

ligion in American politics which I definitely do not support - it's un-American. Regardless, I think that the university could make much better use of funding than opening a highly questionable, limited scope program.

John C. Danforth

Links:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/new-center-on-religion-and-politics-to-be-named-for-former-mo-senator/

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=d000030