The separation of church and state, as we know it,
may soon be thing of the past.
Though it has a consistent history, the separation
of church and state has long been attacked as a misinterpretion
of the Constitution. The First Amendment says, “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
President James Madison wrote in an 1819 letter “[T]he
number, the industry and the morality of the priesthood,
and the devotion of the people have been manifestly
increased by the total separation of the church and
state.” As President, Madison vetoed at least
four bills because he believed they violated the religious
freedom ordered by the First Amendment. Moreover,
President Thomas Jefferson consulted with his attorney
general, Levi Lincoln, before drafting a letter to
the Danbury Baptists where he referred to a “wall
of separation between church and state.” Court
cases over the past one hundred years have continuously
upheld a separate church and state.
Nevertheless, recent moves by the Religious Right
and its control over the Republican Party have shown
how vulnerable centuries of precedent can be. The
Texas Republican Platform of 2004 is almost a wish-list
of the Religious Right. The Platform calls the “United
States of America a Christian Nation” and promises
to “dispel the myth of the separation of church
and state.”
House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said,
“I don't believe there is a separation of church
and state” at a Congressional luncheon on July,
2001.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said on January
12th, 2003 at a Religious Freedom event that the 9th
Circuit decision to remove “under God”
from the Pledge of Allegiance showed how the courts
were misinterpreting the First Amendment to “exclude
God from the public forums and from political life.”
President Bush has even circumvented checks and balances
to put anti-secular Judges in power. Bush appointed
William Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
during a Congressional recess, thus avoiding Congress’s
approval (Democrats were blocking Pryor’s appointment
amid Republican charges that their motives were anti-catholic).
Pryor was the Alabama attorney general who defended
Judge Roy Moore of the Ten Commandments at the court
house. On April 12, 1997, in Moore’s defense,
Pryor said “God has chosen, through his son
Jesus Christ, this time, this place for all Christians
Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox to save our country
and save our courts.”
10th Circuit appointee Michael McConnell said “Freedom
flourishes when man is subordinate to God.”
James Leon Holmes’s appointment to the federal
court in Arkansas passed the Senate in spite of his
saying “The wife is subordinate to herself and
to her husband,” in a 1997 article. He also
said, “Christianity transcends the political
order and cannot be subordinated to the political
order” in a 2002 address to the Society of Catholic
Social Scientists.
If given another four years, Bush will have the opportunity
to appoint up to four Supreme Court judges.
As if filling the courts with extreme conservatives
wasn’t enough, Republicans have pushed legislation
either striping the judiciary of its power or blatantly
violating the separation of church and state. Same-sex
marriage is the most prominent example. After two
state Supreme Courts (Hawaii and Massachusetts) have
ruled same-sex marriages are required by their state
constitutions, conservatives have fought for amendments
to the United States constitution defining marriage.
When the Federal Marriage Amendment failed to pass,
the House passed the Marriage Protection Act stripping
the federal judiciary from hearing any challenge to
the Defense of Marriage Act (the law allowing states
to ban same-sex marriage).
Championed by the aforementioned ex-Judge Moore and
televangelist Pat Robertson, the Constitutional Restoration
Act of 2004 (H.R. 3799) strips the entire judiciary
from ruling on cases regarding religion.
As written in the bill, the Act says, “Notwithstanding
any other provision of this chapter, the Supreme Court
shall not have jurisdiction to review, by appeal,
writ of certiorari, or otherwise, any matter to the
extent that relief is sought against an element of
Federal, State, or local government, or against an
officer of Federal, State, or local government (whether
or not acting in official personal capacity), by reason
of that element’s or officer’s acknowledgment
of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or
government.”
This means any “element of Federal, State,
or local government” can pass laws favoring
God and other religious beliefs without checks and
balances. “God [is] the sovereign source of
law, liberty, or government.”
The Texas Republican Platform shows what the Religious
Right wants, and explains major aspects of the Bush
Presidency thus far. School vouchers allow tax money
to pay for parochial schools. Further, the Texas Platform
calls for the abolishment of the Department of Education
without moving its responsibilities to any other government
body (there are always school vouchers for parochial
schools).
They call for continuation of the already passed
Faith-Based Initiative that allows religious institutions
to receive federal funding while continuing to discriminate
for religious reasons. Texas also wants “free
speech for the clergy” by allowing them to address
political issues without loosing tax-exemption status.
A similar bill failed in Congress this year.
Homosexuals, pro-choice women, and members of any
religious group, agnostics, atheists or others aside
from the extreme Religious Right (the Religious Right
is the minority, I might note) should fear for their
freedoms. If given them, Bush’s next four years
will be unchecked by another election.
The only people really safe are the Jews. Jews must
be in control of Israel in order for Jesus to return.
At that point, two thirds of the Jews will die and
the rest will enter Heaven having accepted Jesus as
their savior. This may work. But then, of course,
gambling is a sin.
For additional information, go to: http://www.4religious-right.info/index.html
and http://www.au.org/.
To read the Texas Republican Platform of 2004, go
to http://www.texasgop.org/library/RPTPlatform2004.pdf
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