Bill, you need to go back and study your American History. We hear too often the term "separation of church and state", but those words are not found in any of the documents forming our basic tenets of the Republic. What the First Amendment says is this :If you study history, and specifically pay attention to Thomas Jefferson, the concern was keeping the state out of church, not vice versa. Having just declared independence from England, where the Anglican Church was the State Church, Jefferson was determined that this situation not be repeated, and had already addressed it in the forming papers of Virginia. Take time to read some of the basic history from the 1770's and you'll find a strong overtone of religion in the direction of our founding fathers when they wrote the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence, and that's a fact that cannot be refuted if one takes time to examine the history.Quote:
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.
I expect that now you'll choose to close the thread, even though you are the one who drug religion into the discussion (read Post 11 carefully, especially the "but...") and brought us down this path.