There are many arguments for and against the separation of Church and State in the United States. Some focus on what our Founding Fathers wanted, others focus on what is best for the country, and others believe that God has no place in our current government. No matter what your faith, or lack of, there has been evidence throughout history that mixing faith with government is generally a bad idea. Our current government is one that attempts to keep most matters of state separate from religion, but there have been times that those lines seem to be blurring and coming together. This is something that cannot continue for the success of our way of life, and our freedoms that we enjoy in the United States of America.

So-called “Christian Nationalists” believe that the United States should support their Christian religion nationally and in government. They argue that the founding fathers wanted a Christian society, and would be for religion in government. The fundamental flaw in this argument being that the founding fathers specifically worded the constitution in a way that there could not be a national religion. The founding fathers were immigrants from European countries that a majority decided to leave because of their countries oppressive religious governments.

As stated by Austin Cline, “The American government was not designed or set up in any way, shape, or form under the guidance of heaven or in the service of any gods. Government is instituted by humans and for humans, not by gods and for gods. The authority of government stems from the authority of human beings, not from the authority of churches, church leaders, self-proclaimed spokesmen for gods, or indeed any gods themselves.” (1) Which is referencing many written thoughts of our founding fathers that believed religion should be freely practiced in the privacy of ones own home or church. Forcing people to live under one religion is not living in a state of nature, as the founding fathers intended for the United States.

As a matter of public policy in the support of human rights, the United States attempts to promote the freedom of religion with other nations. This might actually be more successful if our own President were promoting the same here at home. In his 2004 State of the Union address, President Bush made a new call for Congress to make his faith-based proposals permanent that would allow religious organizations to compete for more government grants and contracts without a separation between their religious activities and social programs. In essence giving religious groups funding to promote their religion at the same time as helping the population, giving the impression that they have the backing of the United States government. Although the administration has not admitted to backing a specific religion, President Bush has made it clear that he is a Christian and is working for their support. Supported by his first act during his administration as stated by Alan Dershowitz from the Los Angeles Times “The very first act of the new Bush administration was to have a Protestant Evangelist minister officially dedicate the inauguration to Jesus Christ, whom he declared to be ‘our savior.’ Invoking ‘the Father, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ’ and ‘the Holy Spirit,’ Billy Graham’s son, the man selected by President George W Bush to bless his presidency, excluded the tens of millions of Americans who are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Shintoists, Unitarians, agnostics, and atheists from his blessing by his particularistic and parochial language.” Our President, arguably the most powerful man in the world, promoting the Christian religion in public speeches, doesn’t sound like he supports freedom of religion.

As if that is not enough we are also subjected to comments from other political figures, including the attorney general John Ashcroft who stated that America has “no king but Jesus.” Or another John Ashcroft quote “We are a nation called to defend freedom- freedom that is not the grant of any government or document, but is our endowment from God.” When you have an entire administration that is blatantly going against the constitution by basically creating a national religion through comments and the overt backing of certain religious beliefs, it becomes a lot harder to maintain any type of separation between church and state.

Keeping the government separated from matters of religion is one of the most important issues we have today. Without a separation we cannot truly be a free society. Would it be freedom to be forbidden from speaking out against a god that you do not believe in? Freedom has to allow for the population to practice whichever religion they choose to, or choose not to. If we start backing specific religions over others we will end up no better off than countries like Saudi Arabia, that have to fear for their life if they choose not to believe in Islam. Saudi Arabia and Iran should be considered a standard for what can happen when religion and politics mix together unabashed. Their streets are filled with religious police, and just about every law they follow comes from their religious doctrine. According to the State Department website, Mutawwa (or Religious Police) in Saudi Arabia, can request proof that a couple is married or related and if not and they deem it appropriate a woman can be arrested for socializing with a man who is not a relative and charged with prostitution.

It is clear that our society necessitates a separation of church and state. If we want to continue to live in our free society, with standards of conduct above those of most civilized nations, we should continue to promote the separation that our founding fathers intended. When we fall victim to certain sects of society and abandon our minority groups and other free thinkers we will erode into a society where free thought is a crime. Continuing to separate our churches from our government is essential for our children and grandchildren.

References

1. http://atheism.about.com/b/a/258197.htm
2. Alan M Dershowitz, in “Bush Starts Off by Defying the the Constitution,” Los Angeles Times, January 24, 2001
3. Christopher Hutchens “God is not Great” Page 49
4. Sam Harris “The End of Faith” Page 154
5. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1012.html

Why do people insist on ‘faith’ in Religion? If God, or the Gods, are so special, and care about humans so much, why would they refuse to make themselves known?

Using your definition of a ‘miracle’ and saying that is the way the Gods make themselves known is fallacy. Every one knows so-called ‘miracles’ have no relation to a higher power, if you believe they do then you are a pretty cruel person.

If a plane crashes and 300 people die, one child survives, and you call that a miracle, you’re basically telling the families of the 300 that their God didn’t find any of them worthy enough to survive. Or that in a strange bit of happenstance it was time for 300 people to go to the “After-life” but not for that 1 child, even though 10 other children were on the plane.

Countless times it has been pointed out that almost every religious story is a repeat of an older religions story. Everything from the resurrection to walking on water has been told before. With different casts of characters.

People are more likely to follow the beliefs of their parents and not some belief that comes to them in a vision or a feeling, yet people still like to claim that God talks to them. But then they call others wrong for having their beliefs even those that never claim to ‘talk directly to God’.

One problem with religions is that they are all mutually exclusive. If you believe in one way, you cannot believe in another. So which one would be right? None of them. They all spring from some human urge to feel they need a purpose. They can’t accept that their life could just end when they die. Even if there is an afterlife and a “God” there, do you really want to meet him? The ‘being’ would like you to worship him every day. You’re supposed to believe in him without anything in return except supposedly when you die, if you believe then he will be kind enough not to send you to a fiery hell for all eternity.

God really must have wanted to test the Catholic’s faith when he thought it best that his men molest young boys.

Maybe he wasn’t home at the time and couldn’t see it happening, he was visiting his neighbor planet Kolob and just couldn’t stop it in time.

Or he was providing the 70 virgins for a terrorist that had died that day.

It could have been that he was working up the right words on how to tell the President of the United States that he needed to invade Iraq.

Oh those that wish to keep living their happy little lives, write off all of the ‘bad things’ that happen related to God, or told by God, or supposedly ‘done’ by God, to different things. Satan made them do it. Those people weren’t true believers. We don’t follow the old testament anymore. The list goes on.

Religion is a farce.

John S. McCain

By Sam Jones

In another weak attempt at using America’s troubles as a political stepping stone, John S. McCain suspended his campaign in a claimed attempt at bipartisanship to help with the current financial crisis.   Anyone with an IQ higher then 50 knows that this is an attempt to make it appear that Barack H. Obama doesn’t care about the economy when he rightly refuses to suspend his own campaign.

Obama should not follow McCains weak ploy at political points.  Although knowing the American people, this could actually lower his polling numbers, it is the right move to continue his campaign.   In another political move, McCain also called for a delay in the debates scheduled for Friday evening.   We all know he is scared to debate Obama, but is it really necessary to delay them?  Would he like the debates delayed until November 5th?   It is for the “Good of the country” that we don’t have our politicians debating on National Television? The debates should go on as scheduled. It’s interesting that McCain would be afraid to debate, John F. Kerry wiped the floor with G.W. Bush in the 2004 Debates and that didn’t help him in the least.

I tend to avoid watching Fox News, but I would venture to guess they are currently talking about how much of a Hero McCain is for this self-sacrificing move in a time of great need for his country.  If only it were true.