F EIN ARTAS OF PUBLIC POLICY in the United States are as is politically contentious and legally confusing as church-state relations. The traditional approach to these issues, rooted in a strict separation of church and state, is being drawn into question today by increasing levels of religious pluralism. This timely book provides the first comprehensive analysis of a new paradigm for discussing church-state relations equal treatment, also sometimes referred to as neutrality that has growing popularity in Congress and has recently been used in several Supreme Court rulings. Equal treatment allows governmental accommodation and assistance to religiously based groups and activities, as long as such accommodation and assistance are offered equally to all religious and nonreligious groups. Eight lead- ing scholars of constitutional law and political science here trace the development of equal treatment theory, consider its implications for public policy and church-state relations, and evaluate it from a number of ideological perspectives