Posted in political on September 30th, 2006
I have a friend who reads my column regularly and he asked me recently if I’m afraid of running out of ideas. I responded, “Hell no, I haven’t even covered the First Amendment completely yet, and I’ve got 26 more to go.” There are so many things I want to tell all of you about our government, society, and the rest of the world that my only fear is that I won’t live long enough to cover everything. I see all of us as comrades traveling on a journey through dark woods, searching for truths. The hard part is, someone keeps changing the direction signs and our map isn’t completely accurate. So before I get any older, let’s get at it.
The first and most important thing you need to know about “Separation of Church and State” is, that phrase DOES NOT appear ANYWHERE in the U.S. Constitution. Not in the preamble, not in the main text, not in the Bill of Rights. No where in it, period. So you can search for it yourself I’ve connected this link for you. Every single debate I have with Secular Progressives leads to this argument. In fact, the phrase doesn’t even appear in the Federalist Papers, a collection of essays written (presumably) by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to try to sell the idea of the Constitution and published in several New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788.
So where exactly did this phrase come from? What was the reason for it being brought into our Judicial system? What was the intent of our Founding Fathers? Should we embrace it even if it’s not in the Constitution? These questions have been pondered by better minds than mine, so what I’ll attempt to do is give you the facts as I see them, so you can better make up you own mind on where you stand.
Let’s go back to very beginning, to the very first time the phrase entered our Judicial System and started the debate that still exists today. In 1946, the case Everson vs. Board of Education was argued before the Supreme Court. At issue was a New Jersey law giving reimbursement to religious schools for busing. The question was whether the state of New Jersey was violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by giving money from the state to a school the was religious in nature. The conclusion was that it did not. The busing was seen as being equivalent to police protection, or any other service paid out to help all of it’s citizens including religious ones. But in the decision Justice Hugo Black quoted a little known Letter to the Dansbury Baptists by Thomas Jefferson stating that he believed there was a “wall of Separation of Church and State” granted by the First Amendment. From that point on secularists in this country have been pointing to it as proof positive of our Founding Fathers intent to keep God completely out of government. One does have to wonder though, if that was their intent, why did it take so long for it to become an issue?
I found it interesting that Justice Hugo Black, an ex- Ku Klux Klan member, was admonished during these arguments for asking people who were testifying if the were Catholic. Ku Klux Klan members have a hatred for Catholics (and lots of other people) as they are almost all Protestants. Could this have been an attempt by him to keep funds from traveling to Catholics who were seen as a threat to the primarily Protestant control of the U.S. government at the time? Hmmm.
Since that fateful ruling in Everson vs. Board of Education, we have seen a rise in attempts to remove God from every aspect of government. The trend has been towards a secular government that not only does not support any establishment of religion, but doesn’t support the idea of religion in any form. Shortly after Justice Black’s ruling, prayer in school was banned. Then religious symbols were removed from government buildings and proposals were launched to delete the word “God” from money and the Pledge of Allegiance. America, for better or worse, has become a far more secular place. And most disturbing to me, freedom of speech has suffered.
What do you mean H.C.? How can this affect freedom of speech? Let me explain it to you this way. Once upon a time in America, schools taught a curriculum of traditionism. No teachers taught the accepting of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. No one taught women that they had the right to work in jobs retained for men only. No one dissented when the government told you to go to war, or said that slavery was wrong. And no one said there might not be a God. Do we really want to go back to a time where one side decides what can be discussed in our classrooms? Is it really any different to tell our teachers, our government officials, and yes even our students that any discussions of God will not be tolerated? Keeping our government free from one religion having undo influence over another, I agree with. I also respect people’s right to chose to have no religion at all, but eliminating the right of religious people to influence their government or their schools as much as those without religion is wrong.
If I’ve only learned one thing in my life, it is this. Freedom of discussion is the bedrock of this country. Removing a point of view from any discussion is far more dangerous than any discussion we could ever have. Unchallenged, any idea can be made to seem correct. Even the genocide or slavery of other human beings. I’m not afraid of free debate and you shouldn’t be either. I’m not afraid to have a right-wing wacko speak his mind, or a racist, or a liberal. I’ll defend my view, and if I can’t, maybe it shouldn’t be my view. Allow religious people to have their place at the table as long as you have yours. Having a theocracy for a government is a bad idea, but so is having a country where only one point of view is tolerated. H.C.
I have a friend who reads my column regularly and he asked me recently if I’m afraid of running out of ideas. I responded, “Hell no, I haven’t even covered the First Amendment completely yet, and I’ve got 26 more to go.” There are so many things I want to tell all of you about our government, society, and the rest of the world that my only fear is that I won’t live long enough to cover everything. I see all of us as comrades traveling on a journey through dark woods, searching for truths. The hard part is, someone keeps changing the direction signs and our map isn’t completely accurate. So before I get any older, let’s get at it.
The first and most important thing you need to know about “Separation of Church and State” is, that phrase DOES NOT appear ANYWHERE in the U.S. Constitution. Not in the preamble, not in the main text, not in the Bill of Rights. No where in it, period. So you can search for it yourself I’ve connected this link for you. Every single debate I have with Secular Progressives leads to this argument. In fact, the phrase doesn’t even appear in the Federalist Papers, a collection of essays written (presumably) by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to try to sell the idea of the Constitution and published in several New York newspapers in 1787 and 1788.
So where exactly did this phrase come from? What was the reason for it being brought into our Judicial system? What was the intent of our Founding Fathers? Should we embrace it even if it’s not in the Constitution? These questions have been pondered by better minds than mine, so what I’ll attempt to do is give you the facts as I see them, so you can better make up you own mind on where you stand.
Let’s go back to very beginning, to the very first time the phrase entered our Judicial System and started the debate that still exists today. In 1946, the case Everson vs. Board of Education was argued before the Supreme Court. At issue was a New Jersey law giving reimbursement to religious schools for busing. The question was whether the state of New Jersey was violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by giving money from the state to a school the was religious in nature. The conclusion was that it did not. The busing was seen as being equivalent to police protection, or any other service paid out to help all of it’s citizens including religious ones. But in the decision Justice Hugo Black quoted a little known Letter to the Dansbury Baptists by Thomas Jefferson stating that he believed there was a “wall of Separation of Church and State” granted by the First Amendment. From that point on secularists in this country have been pointing to it as proof positive of our Founding Fathers intent to keep God completely out of government. One does have to wonder though, if that was their intent, why did it take so long for it to become an issue?
I found it interesting that Justice Hugo Black, an ex- Ku Klux Klan member, was admonished during these arguments for asking people who were testifying if the were Catholic. Ku Klux Klan members have a hatred for Catholics (and lots of other people) as they are almost all Protestants. Could this have been an attempt by him to keep funds from traveling to Catholics who were seen as a threat to the primarily Protestant control of the U.S. government at the time? Hmmm.
Since that fateful ruling in Everson vs. Board of Education, we have seen a rise in attempts to remove God from every aspect of government. The trend has been towards a secular government that not only does not support any establishment of religion, but doesn’t support the idea of religion in any form. Shortly after Justice Black’s ruling, prayer in school was banned. Then religious symbols were removed from government buildings and proposals were launched to delete the word “God” from money and the Pledge of Allegiance. America, for better or worse, has become a far more secular place. And most disturbing to me, freedom of speech has suffered.
What do you mean H.C.? How can this affect freedom of speech? Let me explain it to you this way. Once upon a time in America, schools taught a curriculum of traditionism. No teachers taught the accepting of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle. No one taught women that they had the right to work in jobs retained for men only. No one dissented when the government told you to go to war, or said that slavery was wrong. And no one said there might not be a God. Do we really want to go back to a time where one side decides what can be discussed in our classrooms? Is it really any different to tell our teachers, our government officials, and yes even our students that any discussions of God will not be tolerated? Keeping our government free from one religion having undo influence over another, I agree with. I also respect people’s right to chose to have no religion at all, but eliminating the right of religious people to influence their government or their schools as much as those without religion is wrong.
If I’ve only learned one thing in my life, it is this. Freedom of discussion is the bedrock of this country. Removing a point of view from any discussion is far more dangerous than any discussion we could ever have. Unchallenged, any idea can be made to seem correct. Even the genocide or slavery of other human beings. I’m not afraid of free debate and you shouldn’t be either. I’m not afraid to have a right-wing wacko speak his mind, or a racist, or a liberal. I’ll defend my view, and if I can’t, maybe it shouldn’t be my view. Allow religious people to have their place at the table as long as you have yours. Having a theocracy for a government is a bad idea, but so is having a country where only one point of view is tolerated. H.C.
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