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To: presidio9

You seem to believe a “state religion” or “official religion” by definition means persecution or illegality of all other religions.

I disagree. It means there is an established religion, that a particular religion is supported and recognized by the state, but does not necessarily mean other religions are persecuted.

In any case, there are a great many countries where practices that Americans would view as a violation of the “separation of church and state” are commonplace.


106 posted on 01/15/2010 2:33:47 PM PST by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Sherman Logan
This conversation is tiresome, because you are ignoring the context of the original question: "Isn't Hati still officially a Roman Catholic country?" Given Hati's history with Voo-Doo, and given the profile that the questioner had provided for himself, I could have interpreted this question any number of ways (the question was not a follow-up to any other post). I chose to answer the question neutrally. Your literal answer to the question would have been that Hati does not, in fact have an official state religion. I said that there are no more countries where Roman Catholicism is the "Official State Religion" any more than Anglicanism is still the "Official State Religion" of England. You are correct that England and a handful of countries with overwhelming Catholic majorities have chosen to ammend their constitutions, rather than remove the original wording. And, in every case, the original wording WAS delibrately suppressive. After the ammendments, the wording was and is as symbolic as the state bird. I agree that Americans might view some of the practices in these places (such as funding schools) that "Americans would view as a violation of the “separation of church and state,” but they would be wrong, because that's not even the way our own Constitution spells it out. Back then, ALL schools were religious schools by today's standards. Argentina has a larger Jewish minority than we have here. I doubt very much that they would put up with it today.

In case you were wondering, while Hati does not have an "Official State Religion," it does have an official state bird: The Hispaniolan Trogon. Males grow to about 12," females have less elaborate plumage. It feeds maily on insects, but also small lizards and fruits. It's favorite nesting place is the abandoned nest of an Hispaniolan Woodpecker. I sure hope these little guys are doing ok right now. At least they have freedom of religion.

107 posted on 01/15/2010 5:31:43 PM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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