tagged w/ Church and State
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So here’s what we have to do. Let’s forget separation of Church and State and accept that we are One Nation Under God, In God We damned sure Do Trust, and that we are a Christian Nation® (this part is crucial). Let’s get past all that soulless secular humanism and By God establish a state religion. Better yet, let’s charge Congress with the job, since so many of the members of that august body have thought long and hard on the subject already.
Here’s how it works. The U.S. will adopt as our national religion that which Congress can agree on sufficiently to pass by a two-thirds majority, and by this I mean they must pass each plank of the resolution by that margin. Understand, “God” is way too vague, and you can’t very well build a moral society around vagaries. We have to insist that Congress agree on what God is and how He (She) should be worshiped.
For instance, we’ll need Congress to decide whether the Bible is intended as a metaphorical guide or as literal, journalistic fact. Was Mary literally a virgin? Did Abraham literally live 900 years? Did Moses literally tie his ass to a tree and walk 40 miles? These are not small issues, and if they are not settled by legislative fiat we risk another millennium of sectarian strife.
Other issues we’ll need Congress to rule on:
Should baptism be by sprinkling as an infant or by immersion once one is born again? And, how quickly can we set in place an emergency re-baptism program for all those people that had it done wrong the first time?
.....So here’s what we have to do. Let’s forget separation of Church and State... more
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Franklin Graham, and the churches that follow his line of thought, and who have injected their religion into public policy, are operating in direct opposition to the Constitution of the United States of America.
They place their religion before their country and they are traitors, plain and simple, and it’s time to classify them as such and revoke their tax-free ride on the backs of the Americans they claim to love, but simultaneously want to see destroyed for the sake of their phantasmagorical ideology.
http://veracitystew.com/?p=45950Franklin Graham, and the churches that follow his line of thought, and who have... more
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It does not take much for many Christians to throw down the Christian Card and declare war on themselves. They loudly point out the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment. But, many of them read "religion" as synonymous with "Christian" and "freedom" to abridge all other religions and non-theists.It does not take much for many Christians to throw down the Christian Card and declare... more
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"Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?"
http://www.theocracywatch.org/new_links.htm"Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must... more
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11dim
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by Roy Speckhardt
The federal judiciary is receiving a lot of attention recently, especially since the Supreme Court is set to determine the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the very near future. This decision, pooled with the recent scuffle over the contraceptive care mandate issued by the Obama Administration, has propelled the judicial branch to the forefront of everyone's minds.
With this increased visibility comes a reminder that the federal judiciary is a vital institution with extraordinary power over our laws and their application. This power necessitates that those who serve as federal judges are impartial defenders of our Constitution and staunch protectors of our civil rights and liberties.
To read the rest of this "A Humanist View" article by AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt, click here: http://www.patheos.com//Resources/Additional-Resources/Time-to-Diversify-the-Judiciary-Roy-Speckhardt-03-19-2012.html
Roy Speckhardt is executive director of the American Humanist Association where he actively promotes the humanist perspective on progressive political issues. He's appeared on CNN Headline News, Fox News, numerous national radio shows, and has spoken to dozens of local humanist groups across the country. He also serves as a board member of the Humanist Institute and the United Coalition of Reason and as an advisory board member of the Secular Student Alliance. He holds an M.B.A. from George Mason University and a B.A. in sociology from Mary Washington College. He lives in Washington, D.C.by Roy Speckhardt
The federal judiciary is receiving a lot of attention recently,... more
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The meaning of JFK’s words were that he would not allow a religious organization or institution to dictate the public policy of the country – a principle that each and every American should hold dear and precious – but that fact is completely lost on Santorum, who lives for the day when the democracy of the United States will be turned into a radical Christian theocracy, where intelligent design is taught as fact, “science” is accepted only with biblical “proof”; where women are holed up at home, barefoot and pregnant – because sex is only for making babies! – where there’s no such thing as the LGBT community, and people of opposing religious and/or political views are no longer allowed to exist...
http://veracitystew.com/?p=31183The meaning of JFK’s words were that he would not allow a religious organization... more
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Religious Right Continues their Own War on Religion: Robison threw down the gauntlet, telling secularists that he was trying to save America so that they would be able to “keep preaching your nonsense,” because in a world that doesn’t believe in God, “you won’t have the freedom.”
http://veracitystew.com/?p=30951Religious Right Continues their Own War on Religion: Robison threw down the gauntlet,... more
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First of all, the idea that an omnipotent being would give a Buddha's butt about an election is ridiculous, and is further evidence of how dangerous these supposed "Christians" really can be when influencing their misguided flock. Secondly, we think Jesus would weigh all the issues, consider all the candidates and their beliefs, then come down squarely in support of ...
http://veracitystew.com/2011/11/08/wwjvf-who-would-jesus-vote-for-poll/First of all, the idea that an omnipotent being would give a Buddha's butt about... more
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TDK729
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WASHINGTON (Nov. 10) -- Is Glenn Beck University opening a satellite campus on Capitol Hill?
If tea party darling Michele Bachmann gets her way, conservative broadcaster Sean Hannity, Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano and David Barton, a Christian evangelist who has said church-state separation is "a myth," will make up the faculty roster when the first classes of her new constitutional conservative caucus convene in the next Congress.
The Minnesota Republican recently spoke on Beck's radio show about a new academic counterpart to the tea party caucus she founded earlier this year.
The goal is to bring newly elected lawmakers together for weekly classes on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence before they are "co-opted into the Washington system." If just 20 or 25 new members join her caucus, she said, "we can hang together and if an unconstitutional bill comes before us, something like a stimulus or a government takeover of health care, we can stop that bill."
Legal education is in short supply in a GOP freshman class in which 35 members have never served in elective office and that includes funeral directors, car dealers and a pizza restaurant owner.
Bachmann said she hoped to bring Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to speak to lawmakers. There was no mention of the Supreme Court's more liberal members, including Stephen Breyer, who has a new book out about the Constitution.
The congresswoman said she also wants "other legal experts who understand our nation's founding documents. David Barton would have a lot to say about that as well."
"Professor Barton" is a regular lecturer at Beck's "university." He has a bachelor's degree in Christian education from Oral Roberts University and is best known for his conservative group WallBuilders, which teaches that America was founded as a Christian nation.
"Scholars such as David Barton, members of the media who cherish [the founding] principles such as Sean Hannity, honorable commentators such as Judge Napolitano, honorable judges and justices, and leading legal minds will and have been invited to speak," Brooke Bialke, Bachmann's deputy chief of staff, said in an e-mail. "Topics ranging from the commerce clause to the intersection of constitutional principles with daily concerns such as Medicare will be covered."
Of the three "scholars" named, only Napolitano, a former New Jersey judge who hosts "Freedom Watch" on Fox Business News, is a lawyer. Hannity is a college dropout.
"I hope the new members -- as well as returning ones -- do not get their constitutional understanding from an echo chamber rather than from the marketplace of ideas," said New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, outgoing chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
He cited some new members with "bizarre ideas about the Constitution, some of which are dangerous." Among them: the belief that civil rights laws are unconstitutional; that the 14th Amendment, which gives automatic citizenship to anyone born in the United States, applies only to freed slaves and their descendants; and that the 17th Amendment, which provides for direct election of senators by the people instead of state legislatures, should be repealed.
Nadler said he hoped such ideas would be "confined to the fringe" of the new Congress.
Bachmann's caucus classroom is the culmination of a populist backlash by conservatives who consider the policies of President Barack Obama and his Democrats not just bad policies but unconstitutional ones.WASHINGTON (Nov. 10) -- Is Glenn Beck University opening a satellite campus on Capitol... more
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It seems to be getting lonely on his island.
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Video series inlcudes the election of Jesus as Son of God, omitted gospels, and video clips of Star Trek for added comic flavor. Politicians who believe this nonsense have alterior motives to say the least!
On a side note this video was made by an Islamic group to discredit Christianity, but that sure doesn't make them wrong about the facts presented.
enjoi!
the happy buddhist
- grassroutesVideo series inlcudes the election of Jesus as Son of God, omitted gospels, and video... more
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CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS
Lancaster to vote Tuesday on prayer policy at city meetings
The measure, which asks residents to weigh in on the city's practice of selecting clergy from different faiths to deliver the invocation at council meetings, has polarized voters.
By Ann M. Simmons
April 11, 2010
To pray to Jesus, or not?
That is the question that Lancaster voters are being asked to decide in Tuesday's municipal election.
Ballot Measure I asks whether the city should continue its policy of randomly selecting clergy from different faiths to deliver the invocation at council meetings, "without restricting the content based on their beliefs, including references to Jesus Christ."
Other Lancaster ballot measures include whether to change the mayor's term limit from two to four years and whether Lancaster should become a charter city. But it is Measure I that has by far polarized the most voters.
The issue of praying before city meetings came to a head in Lancaster last August when the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sent a letter to city officials stating that the group had received "a number of complaints" about council members and commissioners opening their meetings with invocations given in "the name of Jesus," or containing other explicitly sectarian religious references.
The ACLU deemed the policy "divisive" and "unconstitutional" and warned Lancaster to quit the practice or risk facing legal action.
The California cities of Lodi, Turlock, Tracy and Tehachapi have been threatened in the last several months with lawsuits claiming that prayer at meetings breaches the separation of church and state.
In 2002, Burbank was ordered by courts to cease "knowingly and intentionally allowing sectarian prayer at City Council meetings," according to the ACLU. The city petitioned the California and U.S. supreme courts to review its case but was denied.
Lancaster -- which is home to Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians of various denominations -- has responded to the ACLU's legal threats by placing the issue on Tuesday's ballot.
"If the vast majority of the community is in favor of this," said Mayor R. Rex Parris, "I think the court should know that."
Vice Mayor Ron Smith, who wrote the ballot measure, has said that the policy of randomly selecting someone to deliver the invocation allows citizens "the opportunity of freedom of speech, to be able to pray the way they want to pray."
Many residents and religious leaders have voiced their support for praying at council meetings.
"All through our history, even in recent years, our leaders have offered public prayers seeking the hand of God's blessing," Paul Chappell, pastor of the Lancaster Baptist Church, recently wrote in his blog, "The Pastor's Perspective." "The current movement to erase our Christian heritage and deny the right to public prayers is not an issue concerning the separation of church and state; it is an attempt to remove God from hearts and minds."
But others oppose the practice.
"I am strongly against the measure," said Kamal Al-Khatib, president of the American Islamic Institute of Antelope Valley. "When they give an invocation in the name of Jesus Christ, they are basically promoting Christianity, which is a violation of church and state."
Tensions over religion were further ignited in Lancaster earlier this year when Councilwoman Sherry Marquez posted anti-Islam comments on her Facebook page. During his State of the City address, Parris told an audience of mostly Christian ministers that he was "growing a Christian community."
The two officials later apologized. But some people were not satisfied.
"If [Parris'] apology was sincere, he would have abandoned his support of Measure I," Al-Khatib said.
http://lstcccme.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/parris.jpg
Photo: BigotCALIFORNIA ELECTIONS
Lancaster to vote Tuesday on prayer policy at city meetings... more
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For original news leading up to today's apology:
http://current.com/items/92030838_mayor-wants-jesus-prayers-and-christian-community-lancaster-california-l-a-county-updates.htm
Lancaster Mayor Says Sorry for "Christian Community'' Comment
Lancaster is no longer in the Christianity-only business.
By OLSEN EBRIGHT
Updated 12:45 PM PST, Wed, Feb 10, 2010
City of Lancaster (Los Angeles County, California)
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris has apologized for trying to grow a Christian community.
During his State of the City speech on Jan. 27, the mayor said, "We are growing a Christian community, and don't let anybody shy away from that."
That comment, supporting a ballot measure to authorize Christian-specific prayer at city council meetings, quickly attracted criticism and federal action. The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a federal civil rights complaint on Friday.
On Monday, the mayor held a news conference with various religious leaders to apologize, the Antelope Valley Press reported:
"I sincerely apologize to anyone who felt excluded," the mayor said.
"Our communities are robust and vibrant when we do everything we can to facilitate all churches and all faiths and ensure they have a vibrant role in the community
"When we have diversity we have friction," Parris said. The question, he said, is "how to have a robust community without making anyone feel excluded."
Representatives from the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish communities attended Monday's event. CAIR executive director, Hussam Ayloush, said he welcomes the mayor's apology.
Parris said he still has a lot of congregations to visit over the next year, the Antelope Valley Press reported.
"For us to have a vibrant and healthy community requires vibrant and healthy synagogues, mosques, churches and temples," Parris said.For original news leading up to today's apology:... more
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Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a formal complaint about a cross tattooed on Clarence Thomas’s lower back — a form of body art known as a “Tramp Stamp” — calling it a violation of the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a formal complaint about a cross tattooed... more
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