한국의 종교 법제도와 정책의 흐름과 쟁점

Although the Korean Constitution stipulates freedom of religion and the separation of religion and politics, there is a controversy about whether the separation of religion and politics is maintained properly in the constitutional reality. Recently in Korea, the meaning of the separation of religion and politics is newly attracting attention due to the religious bias of some public officials between politics and religion and the issues on the government's support for religious activities. In other words, although the strict separation of religion and politics is defined in norms, the principle has been weakened in reality and is used rather metaphorically. Accordingly, it is true that our legal systems and policies with respect to religion are also reflecting a weakened principle of the separation of religion and politics rather than a strict one. This study aims to investigate how the constitutional meaning of the separation of religion and politics is realized in our legal systems and policies by examining the trends of our legal systems and policies with respect to religion. This study saw that with regard to the guarantee of freedom of religion and the separation of religion and politics, in Korea, support mainly for official religions has been expanded within the constitutional limit while reflecting the nation's sociocultural reality. According to this result, it is not appropriate to regard the support for religion as a violation against the separation of religion and politics, and it is necessary to establish a new Korean model for the separation of religion and politics within the constitutional limit.