The Separation of Church and State: Because this has gotten thrown around a lot in post-Christmas conversation (and on Eric Funstons page) I thought Id take a moment to clarify (always remember that most misnomers can be solved with either a trip to wikipedia or snopes). The separation of Church and State is based on this clause from the first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ... This means that America shall never have a legally established religion - such as France and Cuba (Roman Catholicism), or Afghanistan and Libya (Sunni Islam). Visit your local library to do more research on what an established religion actually is. This legal clause does not prevent religion in politics, in fact, it encourages it. Not having an established religion means that any person of any faith can run for office and have his or her religion influence his or her voting practices. Political parties with religious slants are simply caucuses for American voters - so that the majority of the country can vote to have things they way they prefer. Welcome to democracy. To say that we cannot have religious political leaders (provided their practice of religion does not prevent others from practicing their own) because of the separation of church and state is a profound misunderstanding of what the phrase actually means. In fact, to prevent someone from being an elected official because they wish to practice their religion through such an office is PRECISELY what this clause was trying to prevent. Always remember, as Americans, we have a freedom of religion... not a freedom from religion. If this is displeasing to you, vote for people who agree with you. Thats the beauty of democracy. However, do not try to force other people to agree with you through rigid laws (i.e. the banning of gay marriage, or the banning of group prayer in schools). Thats not democracy. Thats fascism.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:04:09 +0000
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