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Originally Posted by Razor
I don't know who coined the phrase, but I like the idea behind the saying, "The Constitution guarantees freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion."
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I'm not quite so sure I agree. The relevant text is "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"; while the second clause, taken by itself, would support that now-common saying, I do not believe the first does. That is to say, my "translation" of the above would be something along the lines of "Congress shall do nothing to establish any religion, nor prohibit anyone from practicing any religion." At first "state religion" would seem to fit better in the first clause, rather than "any religion," and some people have used such an interpretation; however, doing so does not work with the second clause, which hinges upon the definition of "religion" as stated in the first (through the "thereof," which refers directly back to the first clause): no one, I would think, would interpret the second half of that sentence to mean "Congress shall not prohibit free exercise of the state religion," which is what it would mean if "state religion" were the operative idea from the beginning of the sentence.
That being said, I honestly don't see where all of the controversey is, except among those who wish to make America an actively Christian nation. The idea of an active atheist conspiracy strikes me as a bit silly, especially when somewhere around 88% of the population consistently self-identifies as Christian, along with the vast majority of elected officials (coming out as atheist or even, in many cases, non-Christian, being political suicide in this country). I am not particularly bothered by the "In God we trust" on the coinage nor the "under God" in the Pledge, but it also strikes me a bit silly that their defenders, on one hand, argue that those phrases are there because America was founded as a Christian nation and is filled with Christians, while the courts rule they can remain because they are a commonplace, bereft of religious meaning by repetition and tradition. And as for the Pledge, someone in an earlier thread nailed it dead on: (paraphrase) "our nation got through two world wars and the Great Depression without 'under God' in the Pledge, so why is it such a big deal now?"
As a Christian myself, I just don't see the problem, or at least, don't see it as being as huge as it seems some people do. The vast majority of the population is Christian, Christians control the White House and the Congress, and I've never seen a church closed down for religious reasons. I'm just not seeing it as a big problem.
Church and State -- What's the real issue?
Silly!!!
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