« Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage | Main | Illumiwhati? »
In God You Trust
by blank at 07:09 PM on August 24, 2003
The separation of church and state is a tricky thing. There is no doubt that the United States is based on a Christian foundation. That’s history. I acknowledge that and like all history, good or bad, it should not be thrown away. Because of this foundation it becomes extremely difficult to make a separation.
This brings me to the whole debate in Alabama over the Ten Commandments being present in a government judicial building. I find the whole debate to be idiotic and a complete waste of government money (with the $5,000 a day fine for not removing it). Both sides are spouting about violation of rights when no such thing is happening. A plaque doesn’t push religion on anyone and removing it from a public place doesn’t stop anyone from worshiping whatever God they want.
This doesn’t mean that neither side has a valid point. The Ten Commandments is history and it belongs in a place where history is kept. A Judicial building is not that place. The commandments don’t even reflect our laws. Last time I checked it wasn’t illegal to cheat on your wife, forget about the Sabbath day, say “goddamn” or hate your parents. The idea that by removing the plaque you are violating peoples’ rights to freedom of worship is ludicrous. Such a thing can’t be removed from your home or church, so how exactly it this situation a violation of religious rights?
The other thing that this protest group is using to defend its argument just shows how desperate they are for legitimacy. These southern, conservative, white folk are comparing their plight to that of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. What a joke.
We are not going to be able to take religion out of government. It was based on Christian values. Love it or hate it, that’s the way it was. Our government was also built so that it can evolve and change with the times to reflect the views of the people. Those views were spoken clearly to Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and he chose to ignore them.
This post on surrealy.com got me started. Especially this link.
comments (8)
This whole bitchfest reminds me of the scene in Planet of the Apes where the three ape judges sit and spout out how inferior humans are and how their sacred scrolls explain history. Anytime evidence is presented to challenge their sacred scrolls, they go apeshit and cover their ears, eyes and mouth. I also find it interesting that such dogmatic religious satire would be found in a film starring Charlton Heston.
by MrBlank at August 24, 2003 7:21 PM
Maybe they should compromise and rename them the Ten Suggested Guidelines.
by anna at August 24, 2003 8:01 PM
Was our government / nation actually based on Christian values? I don't know about that. The pilgrims came here to practice their own religion freely (whatever religion that was, could've been Christian, I don't know), but the people who wrote the Constitution were Deists mostly.
As for Christian values, not killing and not stealing, et al., are just common sense or moral sense; they don't have much to do with religion. The religious commandments are the Christian values, and they're the reason for the church/state separation-- the ruling party can't be seen to endorse one religion over any other, otherwise the others might feel alienated and second-classed, and so on. It doesn't seem that difficult to do, separating the two.
Moore's argument is that the state's constitution allows him to do what he's doing. He doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that the US constitution takes precedence. He's being an idiot.
The article about Bush and atheists: Bush's statements and the other ones from his spokesman or whoever that is, they're just fucking dumb.
by Adam at August 25, 2003 8:30 AM
I thought in these areas, state law overrode federal. What continually amazes me is the "causes"
people choose to devote their time to, when there is so much more IMPORTANT shit going on in this world.
by Linz at August 25, 2003 10:04 AM
To clarify: the article about Bush and atheists was with Bush Sr. He said that stuff a long time ago. I'm sure that Bush Jr. has the same views, he's just not going to be as blunt about it. To be PC and all.
by MrBlank at August 25, 2003 11:33 AM
Just realized I put the wrong link there. This is what I meant to put. To prevent myself from learning coding, I just have saved the string of characters on a Note in Outlook, and I plug website names into the string and then I copy it & paste it into comments. Hence, that was a link I pasted in someone else's comments last week.
by Linz at August 25, 2003 12:04 PM
Linz, are you still mad at that guy who tried to outlaw Oreos? Trans Fats sound pretty bad. Is that not a worthy cause, or are you making fun of me for bitching about a silly topic?
by MrBlank at August 26, 2003 4:03 PM
Trans fats? Not a worthy cause in my book. I am more worried about people that can't eat at all than about unhealthy slovenly Americans that eat Doritos and Oreos (like me). I was making fun of the "activists" on each side of the debate that your post discusses.
by Linz at August 28, 2003 3:23 PM