Our vision of a society untroubled by hatred and fear has a third major element ­ beyond the high-profile battle against organized hatred, beyond the long-range work in anti-bias education. That is the fight to maintain church-state separation, which to us goes to the heart of our role as a civil rights organization ­ because we have always seen this separation, enshrined in the Constitution, as the best guarantee of the rights of religious minorities. We see proof of this in American history, which shows that religious belief has been able to thrive because there is not a government "stamp of approval" on one religion. And the history of the

We have always seen the separation of church and state, as enshrined in the Constitution, as the best guarantee of the rights of religious minorities.

world gives us all too many examples of what happens when the state does intrude upon matters of faith.

But there are those who see things differently. The religious right has continually worked to tear down the wall of separation, in the hope of promoting its own agenda. And so throughout 1998, ADL joined with other concerned citizens' groups ­ lobbying, mounting joint publicity campaigns, filing briefs in court cases ­ to turn back these extremists' efforts.

Some of our opponents have accused ADL and our allies of being "anti-religion." On the contrary ­ what the League opposes is religious coercion, which has often been directed against Jews and other minorities. We hold fast to our vision of an America where, absent such coercion, countless faiths are able to flourish.

In that spirit, ADL's Civil Rights Division has continued to work for the protection of individual religious expression, particularly in the workplace.