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 United States Constitution’s First Amendment prohibits the government from favoring a specific religion or passing legislation to establish an official, national religion. This clause is known as the separation of church and state. Because of the clause’s vague language, there is an interpretive element that has resulted in myriad legal battles. Some of the most recent center on issues such as abortion, school prayer, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, same-sex marriage, and the right to die. These challenge the Supreme Court to make sometimes controversial decisions as it deciphers the clause in order to protect individuals’ freedom of religion rights.
And because we have so many (crazy) religious people running this country we get silly laws like “no same-sex marriage”. The reason they think this is wrong is because the bible says a man shall not lay with another man (proof) . Well the next verse says we should stone to death disobedient children. So do they just get to pick and choose what feels right to them?
Despite some of these rulings, there are things that will never change. “In God We Trust” is printed on all the money in the United States. The Pledge of Allegiance (which means you pledge yourself TO the United States of America (history) ) has the words “One nation, under god”, and for some time students were being required to recite it before school. There is a big battle over removing the 10 commandments from courtrooms in the United States.
But is this entirely a problem with our government? There was a poll released recently that said 85% of voters would not vote for somebody who doesn’t have some sort of religious faith (an atheist). Now I know that having faith and bringing religion into government are two totally different things, but this also points out what a horrible perception people have about atheists. Just because somebody doesn’t have “faith” (or maybe they do, just not in a god) doesn’t mean they don’t have moral principals.
Simply put, if my tax dollars pay for it, god can’t be in it. Public schools, court rooms, money. There shouldn’t even be a debate over it. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says you must separate your god from my government, no matter what my “faith” is. So remind me once more why our government-issued currency tells us, “In God We Trust”?
Here is a huge list of over 1000 lawsuits involving separation of church and state over the last six years.
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