Should U.S. foreign policy get religion?

A God gap impedes U.S. foreign policy.

That's the conclusion of an independent two-year study by the well-connected Chicago Council on Global Affairs. The study, released Tuesday, recommends that President Obama and his National Security Council make religion "an integral part of our foreign policy."

The study identified six patterns that "reflect religion's increasing importance in international affairs . . . making them impossible to ignore in the conduct of foreign policy."

-- The influence of religious groups -- some with long-established and others with newly won voices -- is growing in many areas of the world and affects all sectors of society, from politics and culture to business and science.

-- Changing patterns of religious identification in the world are having significant political implications.

-- Religion has benefited from and been transformed by globalization, but it also has become a primary means of organizing opposition to it.

-- Religion is playing an important public role where governments lack capacity and legitimacy in periods of economic and political stress.

-- Religion is often used by extremists as a catalyst for conflict and a means of escalating tensions with other religious communities.

-- The growing prominence of religion today is deepening the political signficance of religious freedom as a universal human right and a source of social and political stability.

YES

Religion is the solution to conflict For decades, the United States has shied away from using religious arguments and engaging religious groups to further American diplomatic objectives. Church and state are separated in foreign policy just as in domestic government. U.S. diplomats can't even talk about religion. The United States has seen issues dividing people not as religious but as secular demands for power and for territory that require secular solutions.