The Church is Essential to Save our Country
In pursuit of the truth – www.cinopsbegone.com – Sunday, July 3, 2011
Excluding Religion Changes Freedom of Religion into Freedom from Religion!
“When Thomas Jefferson penned his famous separation of Church and State letter in 1802, he did so in the context and response to a query from Baptists in Connecticut. They were concerned that their Congregationalist brothers were attempting to impose their brand of Protestantism on the whole of the state.
“The Congregationalist you see wanted to become the official religion of the State. Jefferson adroitly pointed out that the First Amendment was intended to keep the State from endorsing a particular religion. It had nothing to do with excluding the Church from the State. The constitutional idea of freedom of religion means that the State is to neither compel nor exclude it. Here are three major hurdles one faces when attempting to change freedom of religion into freedom from religion.
1. One must twist the first amendment. When attempting to exclude religion from the State one must interpret it contrary to how Jefferson did.
2. One must rewrite the Declaration of Independence. Therein exists not a freedom from religion viewpoint. To the contrary the document speaks about God: God granting unalienable rights. God created man equally, etc. (as aligns with Gen. 2:26; Psa. 8:5-8) These God-granted attributes, are the very things that government seek to defend in its citizenry – not exclude! Accordingly, to exclude religion from government is to unravel the main reason America fought for and established its independence in the first place.
3. One must ignore the fact that our government is to not prohibit the free exercise of religion. Such an edict is in contradiction to proponents of exclusion. Perhaps exclusionists should attempt to rewrite the Constitution versus twisting its perspicuity. Freedom from religion – exclusion – is an untenable position biblically, historically and constitutional...“Believers are to be involved in transforming culture versus being against it, or isolated from it…”
Thanks to Crusade for Life – Report – V. 25 No 3 – 714/963-4753 – ProLife@crusadeforlife.org
“If we lose God, we can no longer be what we are supposed to be because we have lost our fundamental standard, and if we break away from our proper standard, everything else is immoderation and perversion…
“It was right and necessary to remind us that the measure of human life is what we call eternity, that heaven and hell and Purgatory actually exist, and that human beings have souls that do not die with their bodies, but are bearers of the good news of God’s love and of the Resurrection…
“The Truth was available to them, but they did not want the obligations that would place demands on them – demands such as the worship of God and the giving of thanks (Rom 1:21)… When we place our own will, our own pride, our own comfort above the demands of truth, it is inevitable that everything will fall ultimately into decay. God, to whom worship is due, will no longer be worshipped; instead images, appearance, the prevailing point of view will hold humanity in thrall. This universal distortion will spread to all walks of life, what is contrary to nature will become the norm; the individual who lives contrary to nature will become the norm…” Thanks to Cardinal Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the Truth – Meditations for July 1st to 3rd.
Happy Fourth of July! George H,Kubeck
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1 comment:
I think you make too much of this playful use of prepositions. Freedom "of" religion encompasses each individual's freedom "to" exercise his or her religion and freedom "from" government established religion.
The principle of separation of church and state is derived from the Constitution (1) establishing a secular government on the power of the people (not a deity), (2) saying nothing to connect that government to god(s) or religion, (3) saying nothing to give that government power over matters of god(s) or religion, and (4), indeed, saying nothing substantive about god(s) or religion at all except in a provision precluding any religious test for public office and the First Amendment provisions constraining the government from undertaking to establish religion or prohibit individuals from freely exercising their religions.
James Madison, who had a central role in drafting the Constitution and the First Amendment, confirmed that he understood them to “[s]trongly guard[] . . . the separation between Religion and Government.” Madison, Detached Memoranda (~1820). He made plain, too, that they guarded against more than just laws creating state sponsored churches or imposing a state religion. Mindful that even as new principles are proclaimed, old habits die hard and citizens and politicians could tend to entangle government and religion (e.g., “the appointment of chaplains to the two houses of Congress” and “for the army and navy” and “[r]eligious proclamations by the Executive recommending thanksgivings and fasts”), he considered the question whether these actions were “consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom” and responded: “In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative. The Constitution of the United States forbids everything like an establishment of a national religion.”
It is important to distinguish between "individual" and "government" speech about religion. The First Amendment's "free exercise" clause assures that each individual is free to exercise and express his or her religious views--publicly as well as privately. The Amendment constrains only the government not to promote or otherwise take steps toward establishment of religion. As government can only act through the individuals comprising its ranks, when those individuals are performing their official duties, they effectively are the government and thus should conduct themselves in accordance with the First Amendment's constraints on government. When acting in their individual capacities, they are free to exercise their religions as they please.
The Constitution, including particularly the First Amendment, embodies the simple, just idea that each of us should be free to exercise his or her religious views without expecting that the government will endorse or promote those views and without fearing that the government will endorse or promote the religious views of others. By keeping government and religion separate, the establishment clause serves to protect the freedom of all to exercise their religion.
Wake Forest University recently published a short, objective Q&A primer on the current law of separation of church and state–as applied by the courts rather than as caricatured in the blogosphere. I commend it to you. http://tiny.cc/6nnnx
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