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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (22114)	11/3/2004 1:04:44 PM
From: bull_derrick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

We'll probably need to agree to disagree here, and that's ok because this is America and that's what's great about this country. I don't see how a town office having a Christmas tree on its property or a statue of Moses with the 10 commandments is establishing a state religion. Your earlier post referred to a separation of church and state which is a concept that I do not believe is embodied in the wording of our constitution. Obviously a majority of activist supreme court justices didn't agree with me on that one, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit to see the bench return to interpreting law and not creating law. If people believe that the concept of separation of church and state should be enshrined in the constitution, there are legislative routes to put it there and that would be the correct mechanism rather than through the courts, IMHO.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (22114)	11/3/2004 1:54:59 PM
From: kodiak_bull	Respond to of 23153

The establishment clause: The actual text, which is quite limited by any reading: Article One: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" Given the generally highly religious nature of the founders, although there was quite a bit of diversity in the "names" (Jefferson, etc.), it is hard to see that that the people at the Constitutional Convention (remember this isn't 1776 and the Declaration) were voting to restrict prayer in any situation (school, opening Congress, etc.). But I am very sympathetic to the way this part of the law has developed, especially since the original union didn't have any Jews, Sikhs, Muslims and very few Catholics. Schools should be for teaching, not indoctrinating. Public buildings should go about the business of the public, not making nods to Lord Buddha or Baby Jesus. However, when you tell a local firehouse that they can't have a Christmas tree or party, you might be getting into the prohibiting of the free exercise of religion. What if a firefighter, a Muslim, wanted to put his prayer rug down 5 times a day and turn to the east, or a Jewish firefighter wanted to wear a yarmulke? It is a diverse culture, though, and we need to be somewhat sensitive to these issues. Kb