A healthy seperation
http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=143704&zoneid=36
Thank you for the letter from Janice Bodwell, "Modern liberals" (BDN, Nov.
27). She says that separation of church and state is a phony notion. But
our founding fathers gave us a Constitution that does not mention God.
Rather, it says that "we the people" establish the government. It says
there shall be no religious test for holding office, and that Congress
shall make no law establishing religion, or prohibiting its free exercise.
Thomas Jefferson called those constitutional guarantees "a wall of
separation between church and state." James Madison called them "a complete
separation of all things governmental and ecclesiastical."
Religious people are free to speak up on the issues. However, as Barry
Goldwater said in 1981, "By maintaining the separation of church and state,
the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest
of the world with religious wars. Can any of us refute the wisdom of
Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the
bloodshed in Northern Ireland or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet
question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of
state?"
Ronald Reagan said, "We establish no religion in this country, we command
no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are,
and must remain, separate. At the same time that our Constitution prohibits
state establishment of religion, it protects the free exercise of all
religions. And walking this fine line requires government to be strictly
neutral."
As a Unitarian Universalist minister, I am convinced that the separation of
church and state has been healthy for both our government and our religious
institutions. Our founding fathers and many generations of conservatives
and liberals have supported church and state separation. I cannot
understand why many fundamentalists today oppose it.
Rev. Mark Worth
Castine
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You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Hampton Roads [Virginia] SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
[Its not just Hampton Roads folks who are members, there are members from
all over the US and a couple from overseas as well]
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.. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
.. . .
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USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
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THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
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