Separation of Church and State
What luck… My local newspaper published a Letter to the Editor from which I can share Red-StaterWisdoms. The headline of the letter, “Religion, Politics a Dangerous Mix”, gave me a running start for today’s Red-StaterWisdoms blog.
She writes: In response to (another man’s letter), I want to say to him that I do not want your God in the government of the US. With that said, perhaps it is appropriate at this time of the year for all of us to remember why the Pilgrims came in the first place to these shores.
I recall from elementary history classes that the Pilgrims came here to flee religious persecution in Europe where King George, among others, was forcing them to believe in a particular set of religious credos.
No thanks. Our founding ancestors would be appalled at how (This is where she loses it and slips into the cynical, misguided anti-Bush posture we Red Staters have come to know so well) “king” George Bush is trying to misuse the Constitution for his own political and financial gains based on his personal religious beliefs and the religious beliefs of those who funded his campaign.
Okay….that’s enough of her letter. She just digresses into more anti-Bush gibberish which I don’t want to type in.
I’ll start with her reference to the Pilgrims, only because a handful of Blue Staters wouldn’t allow teachers to make any reference to “God” while they taught the Thanksgiving story this past Thanksgiving Holiday. In other words, the students at that school came away from a lesson on Pilgrims without knowing the true story of Thanksgiving, because to do so would mean mentioning “Who” the Pilgrims gave thanks to.
This doesn’t strike me as being “secular”. This strikes me as being just plain “paranoid” and extreme in every sense of the word. Now let’s settle the matter once and for all.
One of George Washington’s early official acts was the first Thanksgiving Proclamation, which reads…“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor…..” It goes on to call the nation to thankfulness to Almighty God.
We celebrate this Proclamation on the third Thursday of November, and families who never pray during the rest of the year, give thanks through prayer on Thanksgiving Day. And for the next 150 years students were taught the Pilgrims thanked God for keeping them alive….until this year.
Now our female letter writer accuses George Bush of “misusing the Constitution for his own political and financial gains,” whatever that means. To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state is to misread history, and to misread if radically. The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order. The Constitution was designed to separate church and state. Nowhere in the Constitution does is state a Christian God should be divorced from government.
Yet Blue Staters, with a lot of help from the ACLU, have been methodically “divorcing” God from the public square since prayer was banned from schools—which always makes me wonder why the Founding Fathers didn’t catch that Constitutional error. They must have known their own kids were “praying in school”. In fact, no one, not the Founding Fathers or any of the other million or so public officials caught the “error” for another 150 years. American kids kept praying in school….until prayer was banned in 1962. So when our letter writer states that “our Founding Fathers would be appalled at how our Constitution is misused”, you’ve got to shake your head in wonder, don’t you?
The Blue Stater’s argument about separation of church and state is weak and they know it. There are literally truckloads of primary source documents that prove our nation was founded on a commitment to God and the principles of His Word. Blue Staters have shuffled through a few quotes from Jefferson and Adams contemplating the issues surrounding SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE and thrown them on the table as their “proof” that a fire department in the Heartland of America can’t display a Christmas tree in the fire station.
More to come on this subject.
She writes: In response to (another man’s letter), I want to say to him that I do not want your God in the government of the US. With that said, perhaps it is appropriate at this time of the year for all of us to remember why the Pilgrims came in the first place to these shores.
I recall from elementary history classes that the Pilgrims came here to flee religious persecution in Europe where King George, among others, was forcing them to believe in a particular set of religious credos.
No thanks. Our founding ancestors would be appalled at how (This is where she loses it and slips into the cynical, misguided anti-Bush posture we Red Staters have come to know so well) “king” George Bush is trying to misuse the Constitution for his own political and financial gains based on his personal religious beliefs and the religious beliefs of those who funded his campaign.
Okay….that’s enough of her letter. She just digresses into more anti-Bush gibberish which I don’t want to type in.
I’ll start with her reference to the Pilgrims, only because a handful of Blue Staters wouldn’t allow teachers to make any reference to “God” while they taught the Thanksgiving story this past Thanksgiving Holiday. In other words, the students at that school came away from a lesson on Pilgrims without knowing the true story of Thanksgiving, because to do so would mean mentioning “Who” the Pilgrims gave thanks to.
This doesn’t strike me as being “secular”. This strikes me as being just plain “paranoid” and extreme in every sense of the word. Now let’s settle the matter once and for all.
One of George Washington’s early official acts was the first Thanksgiving Proclamation, which reads…“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor…..” It goes on to call the nation to thankfulness to Almighty God.
We celebrate this Proclamation on the third Thursday of November, and families who never pray during the rest of the year, give thanks through prayer on Thanksgiving Day. And for the next 150 years students were taught the Pilgrims thanked God for keeping them alive….until this year.
Now our female letter writer accuses George Bush of “misusing the Constitution for his own political and financial gains,” whatever that means. To read the Constitution as the charter for a secular state is to misread history, and to misread if radically. The Constitution was designed to perpetuate a Christian order. The Constitution was designed to separate church and state. Nowhere in the Constitution does is state a Christian God should be divorced from government.
Yet Blue Staters, with a lot of help from the ACLU, have been methodically “divorcing” God from the public square since prayer was banned from schools—which always makes me wonder why the Founding Fathers didn’t catch that Constitutional error. They must have known their own kids were “praying in school”. In fact, no one, not the Founding Fathers or any of the other million or so public officials caught the “error” for another 150 years. American kids kept praying in school….until prayer was banned in 1962. So when our letter writer states that “our Founding Fathers would be appalled at how our Constitution is misused”, you’ve got to shake your head in wonder, don’t you?
The Blue Stater’s argument about separation of church and state is weak and they know it. There are literally truckloads of primary source documents that prove our nation was founded on a commitment to God and the principles of His Word. Blue Staters have shuffled through a few quotes from Jefferson and Adams contemplating the issues surrounding SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE and thrown them on the table as their “proof” that a fire department in the Heartland of America can’t display a Christmas tree in the fire station.
More to come on this subject.
posted by sallyann | 6:45 PM
2 Comments:
"You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right…But I tell you, Winston, that reality is not external. Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal. Whatever the Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party."
This sounds like "goose stepping" metaphysics.
You vil do as I say....(sound of boot heels clicking together.)
If you return "Anonymous" to check on any responses to your post...your quote was too vague. I need more information before I respond.
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