religion
Return
to Common Sense
April 29, 2009
Section: Domestic – Religion
“The Constitution erects a wall, not to protect government
from religion, but rather to protect religion from government.”
Philosophy (Background, Issues,
Objectives):
Religious
freedom is widely regarded as
- Declaration of
- Constitution Amendment I states
“Congress shall make no law
respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.”
- “Separation of Church and State” is not in the
Constitution, but was part of a letter by Thomas Jefferson in 1802.
American
Founders based much of their thinking on Judeo-Christian religious principles.
- John Adams wrote “Statesmen may plan and speculate about
liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the
principles upon which liberty can stand.”
- Patrick Henry’s prose
“rustled with the leaves of
the New Testament.”
- George Washington identified
“Religion and Morality”
as the “surest” and
the most “indispensable
supports …. Of public prosperity.”
- The original Ten Commandments
were used as a basis for many laws, but judicial interpretations has
morphed the original commandments into something unrecognizable.
- Many people do not observe the
minutiae of religion, yet believe in a personal, caring, and wise God, and
consider themselves religious.
o Americans, like the Founders, do not
want a theocracy yet desire “a
nation under God.”
o Americans see a need to live within
moral boundaries and to reject moral anarchy and secular religion.
There
is a direct relationship between democracy and religious repression.
- Most religiously free countries
are democracies, almost all of them culturally Christian.
- Most religiously repressive
include communist regimes, Islamist regimes, and former Soviet republics.
- A majority of the world’s
most religiously repressive regimes have majority Muslim populations.
- Some democratic regimes have poor
records on religious freedom, but just about all religiously free nations
have good civil liberties rankings.
- Religiously free societies
encourage private initiative and entrepreneurship.
Research
clearly demonstrates that regular religious practice is both an individual and
social good.
- Practice of religion is good for
individuals, families, states, and nations.
- Regular churchgoers tend to live
an average of seven years longer than those who never attend church.
- Religious practice improves
health, learning, economic well-being, self-control, self-esteem, and
empathy.
- Christian “fundamentalists” have dropped
to only 30% of all Christians in 2004.
- Religious practice reduces the
incidence of social pathologies, such as unwed births, crime, delinquency,
drug and alcohol addiction, health problems, anxieties, and prejudices.
- Black ministers attack root
problems of under achievement and dysfunctional families.
Churches have
had a traditional obligation to care for the poor and needy.
- Church charitable organizations
were the most effective relief after Hurricane Katrina.
- Too often in
- Liberals argue that government is
the best entity to help the poor at home and abroad.
- All too often, government uses
charity as a political device to "buy" constituencies for
politicians or their parties.
- Libertarian conservatives believe
the responsibility to care for the poor rests on the shoulders of
individuals.
Moral
relativism is a secular notion that personal feelings can decide right from
wrong.
- Young people rely on feelings
since they do not have the maturity to question their passions.
- Religious expression is perceived
as evidence of a theocratic conspiracy.
- Only 3% of Americans are
atheists.
- Socialism has been offered as a
pseudo-religious alternative.
- Christianity breeds individualism
and fosters liberty.
- Secularity objective is to purge
all references to religion in the marketplace.
- Liberals are offended and feel
threatened by all expressions of spiritual religious faith.
o Selective criticism tries to reduce
religious influence, while pretending to be religious.
- ACLU seeks to remove all things
religious from public life.
o Removal of prayers from schools.
o Removal of Ten Commandments from
public buildings.
o Removal of “under God”
from the Pledge of Allegiance.
- Karl Marx viewed religion as
“an opium of the masses”,
imposed by the rulers to oppress the workers.
- In
There
is logic to assert that Socialism has been established as a secular religion
and an unofficisal national
church.
·
Socialism
exhibits all the same elements as a religion:
o
Garden
of Eden (the State of Nature).
o
Original
Sin (Amassing private property).
o
A
Promise of Salvation (socialist salvation by future generations).
·
Marx
has become a mythical, god-like figure.
·
Darwin
is the embodiment of science and truth.
·
The
state-planner, the minister of socialist religion, sees himself as a modern-day
Moses uniquely qualified by his knowledge about the so-called Immutable Law of
History to guide humanity to earthly perfection, back to the Original State of
Nature.
Principles:
Maintain
Judeo-Christian religious principles and morality as the core basis underlying
our laws.
- Respect all personal religious
beliefs.
Principles
which undergird any successful charity:
- Charity should encourage
affiliation with the needy person's local community, church and family
- It should form a bond between the
needy and the charitable
- It should organize the needy into
different groups depending on their type of need
- It should seek to establish the needy
person in a long-term job
- It should emphasize the freedom
of being able to provide for oneself
- It should recognize the spiritual
and not just material needs of the poor.
Recommendations:
Enforce
the Founders intent to respect religious beliefs.
- Affirm right of private
associations and individuals to uphold religious tenets and express them
publicly.
- Appoint and confirm judges who
understand the important contribution of religion to public life.
Protect
the religious liberty and integrity of faith-based organizations that
participate directly or indirectly in government social service programs.
- Encourage
private giving to augment support to the poor and needy.
References:
“Godless – The Church of Liberalism”
by Ann Coulter published by Crown forum, 2006.
“Enemies of Tyranny: Faith, Reason, and the
First Amendment” by Steve Farrell dated
“Private Property: Right from God, Friend of
Republics” by Steve Farrell dated
“Missing the Mark With Religion, Part 8: My
Country, My President, My Party, Come Hell of High Water!” by Steve
Farrell dated
“Finding the Mark With Religion: Memories of
Our Founders’ Faith” by Steve Farrell dated
“What does ‘Judeo-Christian’
mean?” by Dennis Prager dated
“Exploding Liberal Myths 9: The Separation of
Church And State” by Joe Mariani dated
“Liberal feeling vs. Judeo-Christian values:
Part VI” by Dennis Prager dated
“Socialism: Our Unconstitutionally
Established National Religion” by Tom Brewton dated
“The Truth about ‘Separation of Church
and State’” by J. Grant Swank Jr. dated
“
“’God is Dead,’ Now We’ll Create Our Global Village –or- Why
Christians are Mentally Ill” by Linda Kimball dated
“Obama’s Prayer- wooing evangelicals”
by Peter Wood dated
“Constitutional isogesis”
by Mark M. Alexander dated
“Theocracy and Liberal Paranoia” by
Tom Brewton dated
“Does ‘Separation of Church and
State’ Really Exist?” by Warner Todd Huston dated
“Democrats Recruit God to Advance Morally
Bankrupt Agenda” by JB Williams dated
“Atheists!
Who Are These People?”
by Alan Caruba dated
“ACLU targets removal of prayer” by
Jay Sekulow dated
“Black Power: The New Conservative Stronghold”
by Harry R. Jackson Jr. dated
“
“Blaming God” by Phillip V. Brennan
dated
“It’s the worldview, stupid”
by David Limbaugh dated
“Leaps of Faith” by Paul Singer and
Brian Friel dated
“Why the ‘Christian Left’ is not”
by Kevin McCullough dated
“I Don’t Judge Religions” by
Dennis Prager dated
“The gospel according to
“The Religious Left vs. ‘Demonic’
“Religious Freedom in
“Why liberals are right to hate the Ten
Commandments” by Michael Medved dated
“Atheistic Democracy: An oxymoron”
by Mary Grabar dated
“A Leftist Declaration of DE-pendence” by Frank Pastore
dated
“Why Liberals Revile the Risen Christ”
by Kevin McCullough dated
“Two Enlightenments” by Linda
Kimball dated
“Ten Commandments, Two Versions” by
Pat Boone dated
“Dreaming of a World Without God”
by Ben Shapiro dated
“How the West Really Lost God” by
Mary Eberstadt dated
“Who Persecutes Religion the Most?”
by Mark D. Tooley dated
“The
Founders got it right” by Stephen Mansfield dated
“Only Christians Subject to Separation of
Church and State” by Sher Zieve dated
“This is not a ‘Christian Nation’”
by Charles Haynes dated
“Myths About American Religion” by
Robert Wuthnow dated
“A Christian foundation” by Dinesh D’Souza dated
“God in
“Why Atheists Are So Angry” by Dinesh D’Souza dated
“Religious
“Free Exercise, Not Theocracy” by
Nathan Tabor dated
“I am an educated Christian and I vote”
by Carolyn Hileman dated
“Who Separates Church from State?”
by Larrey
“Founding Fathers Legislated Morality”
by Pat Boone dated
“Charity Should Begin with the Church”
by Ken Connor dated
“Christianity and ‘Anti-Semitism’”
by Jack Kerwick dated April 12, 2009 published by
Intellectual Conservative at http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2009/04/12/christianity-and-anti-semitism/ .
“Socialism: Our Unconstitutionally
Established National Religion” by Thomas Brewton dated April 29, 2009
published by Thomas Brewton at http://www.thomasbrewton.com/index.php/weblog/socialism_our_unconstitutionally_established_national_religion/
.
