Posted on 06/26/2002 1:56:03 PM PDT by B-Chan
A Modest Proposal For A New Constitutional Amendment:
Amendment XXVII
I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.II. The right of the several States to make laws regarding an establishment of religion shall not be abridged.
Civil religion in the United States shall consist only of the Christian faith. While Congress shall pass no law regarding an establishment of that religion, neither this constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to abridge the right of the States or the people respectively to acknowledge the Christian faith as the foundation of our civil law and national culture.Amenment = Amendment, by the way.
If only.
Read your history. Escaping from taxpayer supported state churches is part of the reason this country was founded.
Really? Then why did Massachusetts wait so long (until 1833!) to disestablish their official state church (the Congregational Church)? South Carolina's Constitution of 1778 established the "Christian Protestant religion" as the official the religion of the state and the Supreme Court never said a word about it. That's pretty odd behavior for a bunch of folks "escaping from taxpayer supported state churches", isn't it?
Read your Constitution. The Founders never said a word against States having official churches. The First Amendment only prohibits Congress from establishing a national church, not the several States, which is why these established official churches existed.
Sorry to disappoint you, but the "wall of separation" between Church and State has no Constitutional basis.
...It would allow the state legislatures to constitutionally establish Christianity as the official religion of their states.
Sorry, but as a Christian, I don't see that as a good thing. This is a republic, not a theocracy. Once you make a state religion possible, you open the door for oppression of religious minorities.
Cute, but how exactly could you "break" such an amendment?
"Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical;..."
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786)
- Thomas Jefferson
Those are hardly the only two choices available.
Once you make a state religion possible, you open the door for oppression of religious minorities.
Oh, you mean like the Branch Davidians?
A state church would not necessarily entail religious persecution. State religions are the norm, not the exception in the Western world. (See above for examples of U.S. states that had official state churches.) Besides, my amendment would only allow the states (cities, counties, etc.) to establish a state church or not according to the will of their legislatures; no entity would be required to do so.
Well, your amendment allows states to set up official churches. These churches will pass laws very similar to those they had previously. Laws like mandatory attendance under punishment of whippings, mandatory tithings, banishments/exiles for the wrong beliefs, whippings, beatings, executions for heathens, and Catholics, ect...
And I'll break every one of their damned laws. With impunity.
The first guy to come to my house to enforce mandatory church attendence is definitely in for a "religious experience". He's going to meet God.
The first thing let's do is kill all the lawyers.
What play was that from? I'm getting old and forgetful, but it got quite a laugh in my college class when we read it.
My comment was in reference to this statement of yours:
"The Founders never said a word against States having official churches."
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