Religious belief may be contrary to certain political movements and retard their development. The church may be directly or semi-directly involved as a motivating force for nationalism or other political movements, or religious principles may be involved as in the instigation of Christian Democratic parties. This may lead to conflicts of various kinds and even to war. It may also lead to anti-clericalism or religious apathy.
Despite the fact that school-sponsored prayers at public school graduations were ruled as unconstitutional in 1992, in 1993 the American Center for Law and Justice wrote to all 15,0000 school districts to give official sanction to the practice.