Posts Tagged ‘separation of church and state’
Posted by Reason on November 30th, 2008
From Kentucky.com:
Under state law, God is Kentucky’s first line of defense against terrorism.
Homeland Security is ordered to publicize God’s benevolent protection in its reports, and it must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”
Such is the provision tucked into a 2006 law organizing Kentucky’s Dept of Homeland Security by a one State Rep. Tom Riner, a Southern Baptist minister.
Under previous Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a lay Baptist preacher, Homeland Security interpreted the law at face value, prominently crediting God in its annual reports to state leaders and posting the required plaque.
There is no reference to God in Homeland Security’s current mission statement or on its Web site, which displeases Riner.
“We certainly expect it to be there, of course,” Riner said.
Tags: Homeland Security, Kentucky, separation of church and state
Category: Christianity, Politics & Law, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Magdalene on November 14th, 2008
What do you get when you mix one “religion” comprised of equal parts pet mummification, the real 7 commandments Moses didn’t quite make it down the hill with, and free speech advocacy with one usually-Mormon state who’s already had a little too much wacky PR for this year? You get: Summum versus Pleasant Grove, live at the Supreme Court!
Tags: free speech, Pleasant Grove, separation of church and state, Summum, Supreme Court, Utah
Category: Cults, Politics & Law, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Reason on November 6th, 2008
Over $75 million was spent in California on Proposition 8, the quest to outlaw gay marriage. The Latter Day Saints are said to be responsible for a good several million of that. Gay people really bug the Mormons.
The search-engine-friendily named blog “Revoke LDS Church 501(c)(3) Status” would like to point out that in order to deserve tax exempt status, a religious organization must ensure
no substantial part of (its) activities …is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation…
This former Mormon’s reasons for providing a host of handy suggestions and links for how to let the IRS know tax-free time must end for the LDS include this most reasonable reflection:
I created this blog because I believe that the members of the Church are some of the most loving people I have ever known in my life, and that they are not well served by the recent decision of Church leaders to exhort members to donate of their “time and means” (i.e. money) to Proposition 8. Reading a letter with this exhortation in every church in California crossed a line — not only because of its political nature, but also because Joseph Smith, the Church’s founder, believed “in being subject to … magistrates” and in “obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Moreover, the Church struggled to practice marriage as it chose, free from government interference, for many of its early years. Has it forgotten its history?
The Stop All Monsters blog has even more keen ideas for how to exercise your views on the separation of church and state, including a boycott on a number of Mormon-owned Mariott hotels in California.
UPDATE: Boycotts continue to roll in. The Sundance Film Festival is next on the list.
Tags: LDS, Mormon, Proposition 8, separation of church and state
Category: Mormonism, Politics & Law, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Reason on October 11th, 2008
Look, basically a vote for Sarah Palin is a vote for Jesus. I urge our American readers to take that to heart on November 4th: fiscal conservative though you may be, you should also expect that your government be free of irrational influence.
Tags: Sarah Palin, separation of church and state
Category: Christianity, Politics & Law, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Reason on August 24th, 2008
Well, my godless friends, it’s the Lord’s Day, and in the interest of getting my lawn mowed before sundown, here’s a roundup of some irreligious stuff I came across this week that likely all deserve their own individual posts, but ain’t getting ‘em.
Tyson Koska over at Truth is a Woman is conducting a very brief poll on religious/not-so-religious self identification. He’s got well over 400 respondents so far, and would like to hit 1000. For your edification, the interim results – why not go give your two cents?
Also dig: a multi-denominatinonal “Bookshelf for the Religiously Confused“, one of the more offensive t-shirts I’ve ever seen, and an shining example of pro-gay-marriage Mormons taking their opposition to the Church’s opposition to the internet.
Vote in a poll on MSNBC – should God come off the American dollar bill? – and discuss on their Newsvine forum. Marvel at the reasonableness of a California court ruling that regardless of their religious beliefs, doctors can’t discriminate against gays and lesbians (huh?). Note that Tiger Woods can walk on water.
Roll your eyes that a prominent Shroud of Turin ‘expert’ has won the support of Oxford University in carrying out new carbon dating tests on the wretched piece of cloth [I wonder what Dr. Dawkins has to say about his employer cooperating with such investigation?]; consider yourself lucky that the Pew Forum reports a slim margin of people prefer religious institutions to keep their noses out of politics; be proud of one school teacher in Jacksonville as he introduces evolution in the classroom as a result of a Florida Department of Education mandate to teach real science; cheer the Saudi women who may one day soon be able to drive; and peruse early reviews of Religulous, which sound pretty good.
Amen.
Tags: evolution, gay marriage, Mormon, poll, Religulous, separation of church and state, statistics, Truth is a Woman
Category: Movies/Music/TV, Seperation of Church & State, Statistics
Posted by Reason on July 7th, 2008
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On April 24 we here at Topic Agnostic made note of the Florida Legislature considering producing a Christian license plate, and the saga continues today on CNN.
South Carolina is now proposing a plate based on the Florida design, which was rejected by the State of Florida over church’n'state concerns. The Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of the very cool Americans United for Seperation of Church and State doesn’t think the plate will get made in SC either – in fact, his organization filed a lawsuit in hopes of preventing it. The basis is that the US Constitution prohibits the government from favouring one relgion over another or over non-religion. South Carolina’s legislature would allow plates to be made for other faiths, but they would have restrictions the Christian plate doesn’t, like not allowing words or phrases on them. The proposed Christian plate says “I Believe”.
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has offered to pay the $4000 deposit himself, and has stated that anyone who opposes it is “prejudiced against Christians”.
I’m not sure why Christians want to identify their vehicles as such…doesn’t it lead to a lot more gum on your jesus fish in the Walmart parking lot?
Tags: law, separation of church and state
Category: Christianity, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Reason on April 24th, 2008
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The state of Florida is considering approving a Christian license plate featuring a cross and the words “I Believe”. There are already over 100 custom plates in the state featuring personal statements from sports franchises to natural wonders, and typically the $25 surcharge for expressing yourself in a vehicular manner goes to support the cause you’re affixing to your car.
In 2004 Florida approved a “Family First” plate benefiting “the Gospel of Jesus Christ”, among other things. In 1999 the state offered a bright yellow “Choose Life” plate with a boy and a girl on it, with proceeds going to anti-abortion agencies.
The ACLU fears this proposal could lead down the road of the likes of the KKK getting their own design. The bill’s sponsor advises that if atheists came up with a plate design stating “I Don’t Believe”, he would oppose it.
Tags: Florida, license plate, separation of church and state
Category: Christianity, Politics & Law, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Magdalene on March 6th, 2008
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Spc. Jeremy Hall, 2-tour Iraq veteran, has refiled his lawsuit against the US Army, beefing it up with new allegations that he was denied a promotion because he is an atheist.
In his original suit, Hall alleged he was denied his constitutional right to hold a meeting to discuss atheism while he was deployed in Iraq with his military police unit; an officer threatened to file military charges against Hall and to block his re-enlistment.
On the basis of that bit of shit disturbing, Hall was deemed unfit for a promotion. He says the sergeant explained that Hall would be “unable to put aside his personal convictions and pray with his troops” and would have trouble bonding with them if promoted to a leadership position.
The lawsuit alleges that Defense Secretary Robert Gates permits a military culture in which officers are encouraged to pressure soldiers to adopt and espouse fundamentalist Christian beliefs, and in which activities by Christian organizations are sanctioned.
Tags: atheism, Iraq, military, separation of church and state
Category: Atheism & Agnosticism, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Formo-Mormo on February 23rd, 2008
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Remember the principle of the separation of church and state? The Europeans who settled North America thought that this was important, especially in light of religious persecution they endured in England, where the head of the state was also the head of the church, and religious ideals were used to influence governmental decisions, policies and punishments.
Though it is talked about still as being a fundamental principle for Western style democracy, it is unfortunately still a condition not yet achieved.
For many years individuals and organizations have used the government to force their religious beliefs onto other people that may not share or welcome those beliefs. Issues of same-sex marriage, drug prohibition and other “vices” were often restricted in some way because of these beliefs.
And it continues to this day.
In the last few years California has had some resolutions to allow for same-sex marriage. Groups from all sides with different agendas made their voice heard through various means. One of these groups included churches.
LDS Church wades into California traditional marriage case
“The LDS Church has joined with several California religious groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of Proposition 22, a law passed in 1999 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.”
In this case, the LDS church is using the government to force their religious belief; that marriage should be between a man and woman; onto other people not of their own faith. This goes against the principle of the separation of church and state.
I find it to be somewhat hypocritical of the LDS Church to do this, after all, they faced much religious persecution during their formative years for their practice of plural marriage, many times resulting in the lynching and murder of it’s members, including it’s founder Joseph Smith. They eventually traveled west to Utah so they could live in peace and have religious freedom, which differed from the religious beliefs and practices of the mainly Protestant populous with which they were surrounded.
That is fine; they can choose how they wanted to live. What if at that time though they had pushed for legislation that would force all married men to have at least 2 wives? Would that have been fair to people that weren’t of their faith, or had conflicting religious beliefs? Of course not. That is no different than pushing their current religious belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman to people that don’t share their same beliefs.
While a church and its members certainly are free to believe and act as they wish provided that they don’t harm other people, they should not use the strong arm of the government to push those beliefs onto others through legislation.
Marriage between one man and one woman IS a Christian belief, and should not be forced upon people that don’t adhere to that faith, or to any faith.
Tags: Mormon, same-sex marriage, separation of church and state
Category: Mormonism, Seperation of Church & State
Posted by Formo-Mormo on January 23rd, 2008
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Afghan journalism student given death sentence
“An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam.”
Though this is unlikely to ever occur in North America, we need to be vigilant to keep church and state separate. When religious tenants set public policy, reason and choice go out the window. As we saw for many years where homosexuals were discriminated against (and continue to be prevented from marrying in many U.S. states) and blacks were discriminated against, both partly justified by interpretation of religious texts, the use of forcing religious beliefs by the government on others continues to occur.
Though the examples in North American are not as heinous as this case where someone is being put to death “for distributing a paper that humiliated Islam”, there are cases where religious thought is used to punish people using government forces.
Islam kills. Just saying that puts me on the list.
Tags: Afghanistan, censorship, Islam, separation of church and state
Category: Islam, Seperation of Church & State
