http://www.womenspress.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=2296&TM=46094.6
[excerpt]
Politics with heart
Spiritual progressives want love to be the bottom line
Elizabeth Noll
Assistant Editor
Last year the Florida government intervened to try to prevent Terri
Schiavo?s husband from taking his brain-damaged wife off life-support.
Polls showed that up to 80 percent of Americans thought that the government
should have stayed out of the case. But a vocal minority of religious
activists and some conservative politicians (including President Bush)
thought otherwise.
From Schiavo to faith-based funding, from abortion bans to abstinence-only
education, a vocal minority?often called the religious right?is reforming
the United States in its own image. Many people all along the political
spectrum are unhappy about the loss of constitutionally protected rights
that go along with this reformation, but they?re hamstrung by how effective
the religious right is at claiming the moral high ground. In part, that?s
because liberals tend to shy away from discussing spirituality in a
political context, often because of their dedication to the separation of
church and state.
But there?s a movement afoot to reclaim religion from the fundamentalists.
The Network of Spiritual Progressives, a year-old interfaith national
nonprofit organization, wants to show people that spirituality is
consistent with progressive politics. Rather than avoiding the discussion
of spirituality and religion, the spiritual progressives argue, liberals
should embrace it as part of a truly compassionate and justice-seeking
worldview.
[end of 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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