"Jeff Strickland" <beerman@yahoo.com> wrote:

:|
:|"Carol Lee Smith" <human@csd.uwm.edu> wrote in message
:|news:Pine.OSF.3.96.1031002000120.32712A-100000@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu...
:|> LEND YOUR NAME AND ENDORSE THE
:|> SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 DEMO IN WASHINGTON, D.C.!
:|>
:|> This Sunday, October 5, 2003, Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular
:|> Humanists and other nonbelievers will rally at our nation's capitol
:|> to support the First Amendment separation of church and state.
:|
:|More accurately you are seeking separation of church from state. This

:|different than the separation of church and state.

And your evidence beyond?
Jeff - I don't have a clue what I am talking about, but I am good at
pretending and making it up as I go along so don't confuse me with the
facts, my mind is made up. I stereotype and prejudge. It has always worked
well in the past, why change now - Strickland
Jeffy -- maybe, I heard, but didn't bother to do any independent
research, I like to believe things I want to hear I don't like knowing the facts if
they aren't going to agree with what I want to believe and I especially
love passing along on the interest as facts things I haven't a clue about
their accuracy -- Strickland is at it again.
is?
Separation of church means separation of church (religion) from/and state
(govt) as well as separation of state (govt) from/and church (religion)
It means separation, dippy. it means divorce between the two, ending of
unions and or alliances between the two. Parting between the two.
Here these people sum it up quite nicely:
Study Guide: Separation of Church and State - Indepth
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/studygd0.htm

:|I've seen the phrase "Separation of Church and State" thrown around in your
:|newspaper.

:|If this phrase is going to continue to be used in your paper, don
:|'t you think the readers deserve an honest, unbiased history of the phrase?

:|If you ask most people where the phrase "Separation of Church and State"
:|comes from, they will answer "It's in the Constitution" or "I don't know."

:|Thank you for your editorial on the Constitution and Bill of Rights in which
:|you showed your readers the truth that it is not in the Constitution (nor
:|Bill of Rights).

:| I would like to give the answer to the people who do not
:|know.
:|In 1801, the Danbury Baptist association of Danbury, CT. heard a rumor that
:|the Congregationalist Denomination was going to be made the national
:|denomination of the United States of America (to the exclusion of all other
:|denominations).

:|They wrote a letter of protest to President Thomas Jefferson. On Jan 1,
:|1802, in the President's letter of reply, he used the phrase
:|
:|"The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation of church and state."
:|
:|
:|In the context of his letter he meant separation of "denomination" and
:|state. He was explaining the First Amendment accurately.
:|The First Amendment says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an
:|establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
:|
:|
:|According to the founding fathers and their discussion of the First
:|Amendment in the United States Congressional Records dated June 7-September
:|25, 1789 (the time they framed the First Amendment), they wanted to avoid
:|what happened in Great Britain.
:|
:|
:|They did not want the federal government of the United States to establish a
:|single national denomination in America to the exclusion of all other
:|denominations. (This was the one and only intent of the First Amendment!)
:|
:|
:|By the word "religion" they clearly meant (according to their records)
:|"denomination," i.e. Christian denomination. This also is evident by the
:|dozen or so versions they discussed before choosing the final versions they
:|discussed before choosing the final version as it is now worded. The
:|original version proposed in the Senate in Sept. 3, 1789 was:
:|
:|"Congress shall not make any law establishing any religious denomination."
:|
:|The second version: "Congress shall make no law establishing any particular
:|denomination."
:|
:|The third: "Congress shall make no law establishing any particular
:|denomination in preference to others."
:|
:|
:|The Supreme Court of 1962 took Thomas Jefferson's phrase "church [his
:|meaning "denomination"] and state" and redefined the word "church" to mean
:|"any religious activity," thus "separation of any religious activity and
:|state!"
:|
:|Other courts have followed suit ignoring the historical evidence and
:|following court's twisted opinion of a phrase taken out of context instead
:|of upholding the Constitution and its original intent.
:|
:|This is the story of how the phrase "separation of church and state" has
:|wrongly been used as the defining metaphor of the First Amendment.

:|Fisher Ames was the founding father who offered the final wording for the
:|First Amendment. Certainly he would understand the intent of the first
:|Amendment. In an article in a national magazine in 1801, Fisher Ames
:|expressed concern that the Bible must always be the number one text book in
:|American schools!

:|
:|Thomas Jefferson was head of the school board of Washington, D.C. The Bible
:|and a hymnal were textbooks! 94% of all the documents that went into the
:|founding era (1760-1805) were based on the Bible, and of that, 34% of the
:|contents were direct quotations from the Bible! Less censorship of our
:|religious heritage would seem in order!

Thomas Jefferson was head of the school board of Washington, D.C. The Bible
and a hymnal were textbooks! 94% of all the documents that went into the
founding era (1760-1805) were based on the Bible, and of that, 34% of the
contents were direct quotations from the Bible! Less censorship of our
religious heritage would seem in order!