For the most part, Cyclone and Hawkeye fans peacefully exist in the same state. They may avoid each other, but occasionally you will find a Cyclone rooting for a Hawkeye team, and vice versa. But when the intrastate rivals are playing each other, the battle zone heats up. A line in the cornfield is drawn, and you must choose where you stand. 

Kind of like politics and religion.

Yes, politics and religion. The First Amendment clearly establishes what we now call separation of church and state. And over the last 200 or so years, the two bodies of authority have governed their own realms, moral and legal, respectively, without exchanging too many big blows. 

But if only it were that simple — to let your churches be churches and your government be government. At some point, the two will intersect. And when they do, the maelstrom will dominate headlines and the fallout is felt far into the future — think Roe v. Wade or the Scopes Trial. 

Why do these two entities, mandated to be separate, come head to head so often?

 Because they are both all about beliefs. 

Some believed John McCain would make a better leader of the free world, while others believed Barack Obama would be the best commander-in-chief. And on Nov.4, 2008, we put our beliefs into action at the polls.

On this Easter weekend, many celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus, believing Christ’s death on the cross is the way to salvation and redemption. Others stayed home because they believed differently. Again, beliefs in action.

And that is the beauty of America—you can vote for whom you want and practice religion in the way of your own choosing, all without fear of persecution or punishment. And we all lived happily ever after, right?

If only it were that simple. 

What an individual believes religiously is often reflected in where they stand on political issues. Yet religious beliefs differ from political leanings in that they strike the heart and soul of man. When you get to the basics of any religion, it is about the relationship of man with the supernatural, the unknown.

Our founding fathers understood the very personal side of religion and made a provision for individuals to seek it and not for the governmental institution to seek it for them. The same principal allows people decide where they, as an individual, stand politically.

As another famous document says, we are “endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” You may disagree about who that creator is, or even if there is one. You may be a Democrat or Republican, a Cyclone or Hawkeye. We are all lucky to live in a country where we don’t have to live in fear or condemnation for what we believe.

It’s what the First Amendment allows for. But it comes with a caveat of responsibility: to live tolerantly side by side with those we don’t agree with — what the Founding Fathers were seeking in the creation of this “more perfect union.” 

 — Alicia Warden is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Blackduck, Minn.