Thursday, March 10, 2005

Hopelessly devoted

"When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some."


- Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun -

Here in the Homeland, or "America" as I still like to call it, there is a trend to blur the lines between Church and State, between patriotism and piety, and between obedience to God and obedience to Washington. For example, this article describes a scheme whereby a group of evangelical Christians infiltrates a prison and proselytize to the incarcerated (with government dollars):

Beyond the God Pod

Does anybody else find it ironic that most of our enemies in the "War on Terror" blur the lines between Church and State?

Could it be that religious control is necessary in a state that wants to spread terror so that it can portray violence as a divine calling?

Didn't our founding fathers recognize this fraudulent use of religion and explicitly guard against it by erecting Church/State walls of separation?

Shouldn't we be wary of our own tendencies to pitch down that slippery slope?

Is it wise to seek spiritual sustenance from Washington, or to make your church beholden to Federal dollars?

Wouldn't devotion to a separation between church and state be the surest way to keep political Islam out?

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Foot Quotes

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

Charles Darwin