One Nation, Under God--Indicative of a Larger Problem: "'One of the amendments to the Constitution... expressly declares that '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,' thereby guarding in the same sentence and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press; insomuch that whatever violates either throws down the sanctuary which covers the others.'
--Thomas Jefferson: Draft Kentucky Resolutions, 1798. ME 17:382
The country for which he fought has carelessly let the fox--religion--unlawfully into government's henhouse, and thus every house, and every school, and every governmental institution:
'The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man.'
-- Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moore, August 14, 1800--- Ford 7:454 - 55
Some people ask, 'Why bother with so much controversy over a few words?' Those words alone are merely the tip of the iceberg. The problem is when an entire section of our government stands up to protect one monotheistic sect and no others:
'I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendency of one sect over another.'
--Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:78"
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I am worried that if we do not keep church and state completely seperate, we will in a short time have an "Official Religion". Much like the religion that threw another Daniel into a lions den for not worshipping the "RIGHT" God. I am afraid of a fundamentalist religion being chosen for us (as opposed to "by us") which will exact punishments like public stonings and lynch mobs, like the old testament Jewish laws allowed. Stoning the evil people who work on Sarurday, and the women adulteress's (but not the men). You will not have any say about which God will be worshipped or what sect. What if the official religion were Catholicism? Are you willing to die for not bowing to their graven images? Just let government and religion unite. How long does it take for a fundamentalist religion/state like the Taliban to evolve to a state of power that it can patrol the streets with canes to whip offenders like women who do not hide their faces? Once the church and state merge you will not have a freedom of religion, nor the right to freedom "from" religion. That is not what the framers of our constitution had in mind for this great experiment. We already know from history, that this type of tyranny is the worst for it is tyranny not only against the body but also the soul. ~~ gr8fuldaniel