hi csl,
with a few exceptions, christianity knows where the edge of religion is and where the secular world begins. the separation of church and state serves a useful purpose. it segregates a society from the wars of religion which are a feature of pre-reformation europe.
religion is now thought of as mostly a question of personal choices. in your case, the religion is more personal than most others!
a religion that, for instance, wants to impose "divine" law on society doesn't know this important thing. it doesn't know that there's a boundary over which a religion ought not to go. that is, if it wants to be treated as a religion. the piece of such a religion that makes a claim beyond the religious framework ought to be subject to robust criticism. it doesn't fall within the scope of silence of what some feel politeness requires.
the church as state model invites the kind of nonsense which ISIS and saudi arabia and iran still argue about. the west has managed to avoid the problem of religious wars for centuries. fortunately, as we know, the pope doesn't command many military divisions.
of course, we owe the religious piece of any belief system no special protections either. but societies usually respect a person's desire to believe the stoopidest things about creators. and personally, i'd rather a mostly benign, reformed version of a religion occupying the space than a fundamentalist and brutal ancient one.
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