http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060307column.php
Independent Florida Alligator - Gainesville,FL,USA
[excerpt]
Four hours south of Gainesville, on a vegetable farm outside Naples, a
billionaire named Tom Monaghan is building a town. He calls it Ave Maria,
and it promises everything you'd expect in a ritzy Florida suburb: golf
courses, swimming pools, even a private university.
But Monaghan's project offers something Palm Beach and Boca Raton can't
match. From the huge cathedral at the town's center - complete with a
60-foot, cast iron Jesus - to the prayer chapels within walking distance of
every McMansion, Ave Maria will be the only community in America built by,
and for, conservative Catholics.
Monaghan, who was raised by nuns in a Catholic orphanage, clearly relishes
the chance to inflict his piety on the world. He says the secular trinity
of condoms, pornography and abortion will be outlawed in Ave Maria -
inducing a state of grace in the town's residents.
Meanwhile, in the state of Florida, contraception, abortions and porn
remain constitutionally protected rights. But Monaghan doesn't care. Like
so many on the Christian fringe, he has very little use for civil
liberties.
In fact, Monaghan has made a second career out of undermining the
separation of church and state. Since founding Domino's Pizza in 1960, he
has spent millions to promote prayer in schools, "intelligent design" and
public displays of the Ten Commandments.
Besides Ave Maria, Monaghan has founded a law school, an investment firm
and an online dating service - Ave Maria Singles - for ultraconservative
Catholics. This empire allows true believers to go from kindergarten to
college to retirement without ever stepping into the secular world.
It's not enough for fundamentalist Christians to foist their views on the
rest of America. Now they want their own towns, their own laws, their own
little country within the United States.
[end excerpt]
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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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