Here is the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
"Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press, or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for redress of grievances."
Note that "separation of church and state" is not in the First Amendment.
O'Donnell was correct. Further, when she asked her opponent for the senate
to name the other rights listed in the First Amendment, he could not. By
DMB's criterion, that should disqualify him as a senator.
The fact that O'Donnell's correct statement elicited mocking laughter from
the audience of law students illustrates their group ignorance. Not
surprising since the academy these days is under the direction of the
political left whose bigoted views of religion are amply revealed in DMB's
post.
Platt .
----- Original Message -----
From: "david buchanan" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] Tea Bagging
Mark said to dmb:
... From my following of recent talking heads, there is nothing in the
constitution which demands the separation of church and state (in fact the
houses start each day with a prayer).
dmb says:
Yea, that's what Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell said on TV recently.
As Steve pointed out, O'Donnell revealed "her fundamental misunderstanding
of what our Constitution is" when she said that. "That's in the First
Amendment?" O'Donnell asked again, eliciting further laughter from the
room. Any Senate candidate who doesn't understand that certainly deserves
to be laughed at. As Obama said in a speech recently, this is the essence
of who we are as a nation. If O'Donnell wins she'll be taking an oath to
preserve, protect and defend a constitution that she does not understand.
In that same debate, in fact, she staked out positions that violate that
particular constitutional principle - the teaching of creationism in
public schools.
I can't imagine that any talking head would deny the separation clause of
the first amendment, except on FOX. The idea is well established in law
and history and the law school audience that laughed at O'Donnell knows
that all too well. And every American really should understand that. The
first amendment is arguably the central pillar of our democracy. It's
central in the list of principles that Pirsig uses to describe
intellectual values, the values that should be used to guide society and
to protect the process of intellectual evolution from social level
interference.
I've noticed that religious people sometimes have trouble grasping this
concept. That's not just a co-incidence, I suppose. There's plain old
ignorance of course but there are ideological static filters at work too.
They correlate so strongly that it ALMOST seems like religiosity itself
CAUSES confusion about the First Amendment. Almost. It almost seems like
one's understanding and appreciation of the separation principle is in
direct REVERSE proportion to one's wish for the establishment of religion.
In other words, it is misread to the extent that it undermines one's
wishes. Psychologically speaking, this is a fascinating phenomenon.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas interprets the first amendment is
the weakest possible way. He thinks it only prohibits the establishment of
a federal church by the national Congress and that the 50 State
legislatures should each be allowed to impose a State religion on its
citizens. Does that sound like freedom of religion to you? Not me. I think
that's morally outrageous and wildly unAmerican.
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org/md/archives.html
