Church And State
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Church and State
Without a God how do we know what is right from wrong. What is good or bad? The Ten Commandments tell us what is right or wrong and good or bad, but the constitution says the church has to be separate. If there is no God in our government we cannot have our Ten Commandments, how do we know what is right or wrong? The current opinion of courts is that the First Amendment bans religion in our government to protect the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression from the government. The first amendment does not say church and state should be separate since our founders understood if church and state were completely separate, our government would fall apart.
The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The first amendment does not state that there was such a separation, but that there was a “wall of separation” which the government could not break. The misunderstood statement from Thomas Jefferson has resulted in Judges who ignore the Constitution and the original intent of the First Amendment of our Founding Fathers (Bonta). The first amendment did not state that there was such a separation, but that there was a “wall of separation” which the government could not break. The misunderstood statement from Thomas Jefferson has resulted in Judges who ignore the Constitution and the original intent of the First Amendment of our Founding Fathers (Thomas Jefferson’s’ letter). The First Amendment does not say “Separation of Church and State.” The First Amendment is just saying that people have a freedom of religion not, that people can mention their religion anywhere, but religion is not banned by our government. The first amendment prohibits the government from declaim one particular religion the “American religion”. If it is supposed to be separate then why do we use the Bible, a Christian symbol, in court to swear upon it before saying a word? The Court does this because the Bible is meaningful to most people in America and the government needs a symbol with meaning to swear upon, otherwise people will lie in court.
Most arguments against separation have to do with the fact that religion has a good effect on peoples’ conduct, and why would the state want to take away the good conduct? Religion tells you what is wrong and right and people want to go to heaven, not hell, so they usually try to do the right thing; to avoid the consequences, therefore a person’s conduct is better when he has a religion.
Another big argument was the Catholic church 1983 canon law that states “Christ’s faithful are to strive to secure that in the civil society the laws which regulate the formation of the young also provide a religious and moral education in the schools that is in accord with the conscience of the parents” (Separation of church and state). The Declaration of Independence states that God is the source of all rights including “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” God is even included in the Declaration of Independence so why do we want to separate Church and State? If God is already so much a part of government, why are we going to take Him out of everything? Government exists only to protect the rights that God has bestowed upon humanity. In the early days of our government, when the statement “church and state” was used, it meant that politics and religion were different kinds of activities, not that one should be kept completely out of the other. Steve Bonta says, “God is the final cause and origin of all things pertaining to man.” As the Declaration of Independence states so emphatically, He endows men with “certain unalienable rights” among which are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Bonta). The founders of our wonderful country had no intention of banishing Christianity in general from the halls of the government. They saw their country and the government they had founded as essentially Christian (Bonta).
Other arguments for separation are the Everson vs. Board of Education. In 1947 the U.S. Supreme Court officially separated church and state. Another argument that people use is that religion has been used to bully members of minority faiths in this country. Every one has heard a Jewish joke or a joke about Buddha, so the people who want to keep church and state separate want so to make sure no one gets bullied. Every group is bullied. If we should ban religion in government because people or groups might get bullied, then we better ban the two political parties as they are the guiltiest of bulling. With all the diversity we have in religion the best way to treat it is with a hands off manner (Wolfe). Accepting the separation of church and state does not mean that all references to religion must be exercised from public life (The Court and Religion), but that is what the opposition continue to fight for and the result will be government with no norms or values? Christ recognized the fact that the church and state must stand each in its own sphere, “Render therefore unto Caesar (government) the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matt 22:21).
America is the first nation that was founded not just as a set of borders, but as a set of ideals, that we are all created equal by God, that we are all endowed by our creator with inalienable rights, that we should all be free to pursue our dreams and realize the potential God gave every one of us (Lieberman). In our government our first right is freedom and if they take the freedom of expression and religion, they are taking away rights as an American. Faith and values that flow from it are central to the founding of this country. They have always shaped and stirred our nation’s conscience. And now, at this moment of moral uncertainty, I believe our best hope for rekindling the American Spirit and renewing our common values is to have faith again (Lieberman). In our democracy, where our first principle is freedom, government cannot and must not control are behavior. It cannot force us to love and to honor our parents, to treat our neighbors