[js1138]

I have no problem with religious morality as the starting point for laws, but the decision to outlaw official religion was the smartest thing done in our constitution.

[eno_]

Outlawing official religion is different from outlawing religious expression in, for example, official ceremonies like swearings-in of witnesses and office-holders. True establishment of religion is a fairly high standard, and we have made that standard so hyper-sensitive that it effectively turned what should be a mandate for tolerance into a regulation against religion (except, of course, for pseudo-religions like "Gaia," etc. which now flourish under the umbrella of the twisted interpretation of anti-establishment).

[Remedy]

I have no problem with religious morality as the starting point for laws, but the decision to outlaw official religion was the smartest thing done in our constitution.

In sum, the object of the First Amendment was to prevent the national government from choosing one Christian sect [denomination] over another and establishing a single national denomination.

"Those of us who venerate freedom, be we Jewish or Christian, be we religious or secularized, have no option but to pray for the health of Christianity in America. No other group possesses both the faith and the numbers sufficient to hold back the ever-encroaching, sometimes sinister, power of the state. Rabbi Daniel Lapin's Toward Tradition " Sept. 2, 2000 ,Volume 15, Number 34, WORLD ON THE WEB, Marvin Olasky