Church, state issue has a history
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=97879&src=
Church, state issue has a history
Published: 12/19/2007 12:19 AM
I must respond to Ron Feldman's Nov. 30 letter "Government and religion
co-exist".
Feldman insists that separation of church and state was not a founding
principle of our nation -- this is blatantly incorrect.
In the early days of the Republic, there were intense struggles within the
state and federal governments concerning state-established religions.
During the American colonial period, alliances between religion and
government produced oppression and tyranny on our own shores.
By the time the U.S. Constitution was written, the secularists (such as
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) had won the argument against the
theocrats, thus enshrining church-state separation in the First Amendment.
Judges did not make up the phrase "separation of church and state". Thomas
Jefferson actually used the term in a letter he wrote in 1802 to the
Danbury Baptists of Connecticut wherein he stated that the U.S. Congress
had built "a wall of separation between Church & State."
And despite the claims of the religious right, the U.S. Constitution (upon
which our law is based) is a wholly secular document, just as the Founders
had intended. I challenge Mr. Feldman to find a single reference anywhere
in our Constitution to God, Jesus, Christianity, or the Bible. He'll be
looking for a long time, because no such references exist.
The United States is the most religiously diverse nation on Earth, and
we're becoming more diverse every year. We are a nation of Christians,
Jews, Atheists, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Humanists, Wiccans and many
others -- and we are all considered equal under our Constitution. To imply
otherwise is not only historically inaccurate, but it is also an insult to
the founding spirit of our great country.
Learn more about this issue by visiting the Web site of Americans United
for the Separation of Church & State -- www.au.org.
Matthew Lowry
President
North Shore AU Chapter
Vernon Hills
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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 · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
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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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