For the past 45 years the town of Pitman, NJ has hung a banner over Broadway every Christmas. This banner simply reads "Keep Christ in Christmas" by the Knights of Columbus. This has never been a problem and no one has ever complained...til now.
This year some "unnamed citizens" have taken exception to it saying that it violates the Constitution. They contacted an atheist organization in Wisconsin, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, to intervene on their behalf. And the liberals idiots complied by asking the town to take the sign down. The organization promotes the "separation of church and state" and cites that very idea saying that since the banner is over a public space so it goes against this principle. The problem is that this idea is a fallacy. It doesn't exist!!
I have personally read the Constitution cover to cover. The phrase "separation of church and state" exists nowhere in the document. This asinine phrase is a bastardization of Thomas Jefferson's ideas that became the basis of the First Amendment which reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
History Lesson:
In 1620 a group of religious outcasts left England and sailed across the Atlantic. They left their homes behind to escape the English throne forcing citizens to join the Church of England. They fled to the Netherlands but still could not escape the English Crown. In 1618, William Brewster published a paper criticizing the King of England and his state church. When the king sent men to arrest him, the Pilgrims realized they had to travel much further to be free of this religious persecution. They applied for a charter and braved the crossing to America.
They never forgot this treatment at the hands of the Crown of England and passed the tradition and history down through the generations. So, when the Founding Fathers met in 1774 this was fresh in their minds. Especially since the Crown was again trying to dictate their lives. They were adamant that they would not create a repeat of what their forefathers went through. They wanted to honor what they Pilgrims set out to achieve: a place where everyone could practice whatever religion they chose.
Hence the First Amendment. It prohibits the federal government from establishing and endorsing a state religion but also says that it can not prohibit the free exercise of it either. What Jefferson actually said was "... I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." He did not advocate that the government should have nothing to do with religion. Indeed, he and the other Founders referenced and drew on their Christian faith often when drafting the two most important documents in our history, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Apart from this there is a specific reason why the Founders tied our Rights to God stating that we are "endowed bu our Creator with certain, unalienable right." They did this specifically to put them beyond the reach of governments and men.
Lets face it. Humans are imperfect and fallible. Rights and laws conceived by Men can be equally fallible and suspect. On the other hand, by saying that these gifts come from God you appeal to a higher, infallible being. By stating clearly in the founding documents that our Rights come from the Almighty the Founders imply that to change these you have to know better than God which would be hubris indeed.
So, to change or take away one or more rights government has to first take God out of the equation...and that what the Left has been trying to do for the past 70 years. The incident in Pitman, NJ is just the latest assault in this effort. The American people would not have accepted an outright attempt to take all references to God out of government from the Pledge of Allegiance to the dollar bill. So they have done it little bits at a time starting by twisting Jefferson's words into this ridiculous idea.
The banner in Pitman is not even paid for or sponsored by the local government. It was commissioned by the Knights of Columbus which is an independent organization outside the influence of government which should exclude any discussion of "separation." Furthermore, it is not advocating that anyway else should or needs to follow the belief described in the banner, nor that anyone shouldn't or can't practice any other belief. It is simply stating the belief of one group.
Besides, what is so wrong with religious ideals and behavior influencing the actions of a government official? A code of conduct based on morals and decent behavior, the basis of which is the forbidding of such behavior as theft, murder and rape..in my opinion this is much more preferable to the miscreants that are currently running the government. I am willing to bet that if you look into any congressman who has a clean record you will find a strong faith.
And the response of the Freedom from Religion Foundation??? "Take it down in the name of 'tolerance.'" Why is it that groups and people that claim tolerance are the most intolerant of all? So far, the Mayor has refused to take the banner down...lets hope he continues to do so
It is important to distinguish between the "public square" and "government" and between "individual" and "government" speech about religion. The constitutional principle of separation of church and state does not purge religion from the public square--far from it. Indeed, the First Amendment's "free exercise" clause assures that each individual is free to exercise and express his or her religious views--publicly as well as privately. The Amendment constrains only the government not to promote or otherwise take steps toward establishment of religion. As government can only act through the individuals comprising its ranks, when those individuals are performing their official duties (e.g., public school teachers instructing students in class), they effectively are the government and thus should conduct themselves in accordance with the First Amendment's constraints on government. When acting in their individual capacities, they are free to exercise their religions as they please. If their right to free exercise of religion extended even to their discharge of their official responsibilities, however, the First Amendment constraints on government establishment of religion would be eviscerated. While figuring out whether someone is speaking for the government in any particular circumstance may sometimes be difficult, making the distinction is critical.
ReplyDeleteHere, it appears plain that the local government (not an individual) would display the religious banner.
A word should be added about the commonly heard idea that this somehow is about political correctness or people easily offended. We’re not talking about the freedom of individuals to say or do something others find offensive; we have that freedom. We’re talking about the government weighing in to promote religion. Under our Constitution, our government has no business doing that--regardless of whether anyone is offended (and regardless of how many or few favor or disfavor any particular religion or religious event). While this is primarily a constitutional point, it is one that conservatives--small government conservatives--should appreciate from a political standpoint as well. While the First Amendment thus constrains government from promoting (or opposing) religion without regard to whether anyone is offended, a court may address the issue only in a suit by someone with "standing" (sufficient personal stake in a matter) to present the court with a "case or controversy"; in order to show such standing, a litigant may allege he is offended or otherwise harmed by the government's failure to follow the law. The question whether someone has standing to sue is separate from the question whether the government has violated the Constitution.