Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: PistolPaknMama
How does this translate into "Congress shall make no law....."

Very easily indeed--as even the lawyers advising the Discovery Institute know, which is why they are rapidly trying to distance themselves from this one, Dover has no chance.

With respect, I am sincerely baffled that so many posters on a conservative forum do not understand the basic structure of our Constitution, nor appreciate just how fundamental the 'wall of separation between church and state' is to our most basic freedoms. Virtually everything else in our Constitution (bicameralism, separation of legislature and judicary, federalism, democratic enfranchisment, &c. &c.) were features that had been developed historically in other political systems which the Founding Fathers borrowed and then amalgamated, on rational principles, into our system of government. The separation of church and state was their biggest single innovation, and a very beneficent and powerful one at that. It has spared the US religious strife and maximised individual freedom of choice, thought and conscience. You are free to set up a school teaching whatever religious doctrines you wish--but the state must not fund those activities, as that would be an act of 'establishment.' Thus, the church and state are allowed their appropriate spheres, without conflict.

So why does a religious minority repeatedly seek to erode this valuable 'wall' and insist upon state sanction for their own specific religious creeds? This is profoundly against the grain of our system, and ultimately destructive of all our freedoms.

36 posted on 09/23/2005 3:20:23 AM PDT by SeaLion ("Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man" -- Thomas Paine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies ]


To: SeaLion
With respect, I am sincerely baffled that so many posters on a conservative forum do not understand the basic structure of our Constitution,

Actually I do understand it, but thanks for asking. :-) It also states that the government cannot restrict the free exercise thereof. Your argument, while fundamentally a good one which I totally understand, doesn't fly in the face of the fact that schools teach, or at least expose, children to other religions. Islam seems to be in vogue right now. If they are getting their drawers twisted over only Judeo-Christian principles then let's do away with ALL religious references in public schools and leave that to the parents.

45 posted on 09/23/2005 5:49:29 AM PDT by PistolPaknMama
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson