Time to Stop Religious Encroachments

       


"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." First Amendment to the US Constitution. 

"The next time believers tell you that 'separation of church and state' does not appear in our founding document, tell them to stop using the word 'trinity.' The word 'trinity' appears nowhere in the bible. Neither does Rapture, or Second Coming, or Original Sin.

If they are still unfazed (or unphrased), by this, then add Omniscience, Omnipresence, Supernatural, Transcendence, Immaculate Conception, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Methodist, Purgatory, Penance, Transubstantiation, Excommunication, Dogma, Chastity, Unpardonable Sin, Infallibility, Inerrancy, Incarnation, Epiphany, Sermon, Eucharist, Sunday School, Morality, Ethics, Patriotism, Education, Apostasy, Capital Punishment, Monogamy, Abortion, Pornography, Homosexual, Lesbian, Fairness, Logic, Republic, Democracy, Capitalism, Funeral, Decalogue, or Bible." (FFRF Co-President Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith)

The Founding Fathers, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were all clear that, "Church and State are and must remain separate."

Today, however, there are increasing pressures to break down the wall of separation. Recently church pulpits have been used for political propaganda. For the most part, the IRS has done little to remove tax-exempt status form churches who have crossed the political line. This lack of enforcement may have resulted in the following ridiculous situation. When Tea-Party- affiliated non-profits (501C3s) were scrutinized by the IRS for forfeiting their tax-exempt status because they were in fact a front for a political party, they and their right-wing allies attacked the IRS for doing their job of preventing fraudulent tax-exempt status abuse. A classic case of the law-breakers attacking the enforcers.

It seems the churches are all in favor of freedom of religion, but only if it is their religion that is free. If you happen to be be Native American, Hindu, or Muslim. that's a whole different story. Some Catholics, Rick Santorum and Mike DeWine for example,  want to impose Catholic beliefs on non-Catholic citizens (cf. the contraception issue as it relates to the Affordable Health Act), but they decry the Taliban's effort to impose Sharia law. It frequently comes down to this: "Don't mess with my religion, but let's get rid of those other guys." Fortunately, our Founding Fathers wrote the First Amendment to prevent such nonsense.

Also, recently there was a Pew Research attempt to gauge Protestants' attitude toward the separation of church and state;

"Forty-two percent of black Protestants and 37 percent of white evangelical Protestants say houses of worship should endorse candidates, according to the Pew Research Center. Among Americans overall, that figure has been in the 20s for a decade.

The report focuses on faith groups but would apply to secular 501c3 nonprofit organizations as well." 

Over one-third of those two Protestant groups are in favor of using the pulpit to promote a political candidate . In terms of the First Amendment, that is pretty scary. But of course, if their church's pulpit was used to promote a Middle-Eastern Muslim candidate who wants to institute Sharia Law in Texas, they would be be invoking the First Amendment.

And that's why the Founding Fathers in their wisdom insisted on separating Church and State! To prevent the "Religion of the Day" or the "Religion of the Majority" from ruling the country. Our Founding Fathers were aware of the abuse that had resulted from such a system in Europe, and wanted to do better in this country.

And, on the darker side, there is the use of religion to discriminate against women.

Dozens of companies are challenging the federal contraception mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act on religious grounds. They argue that because of the company owner's religious  beliefs, their companies should be exempt from covering the cost of contraceptives. Recently a three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that a for-profit, secular corporation cannot seek to impose the owners' religious beliefs on its employees.* As The Toledo Blade editorialized, "No one seeking employment should have to worry about the religion of the boss." (9/23/13)

Another area of religious encroachment is in the field of education. Conservative Republicans have been been pushing the Charter School option. In spite of the fact that these schools are under-regulated and have produced sub-standard results, the number of such schools increases each year. And the dirty little secret that is so-often overlooked is that so many of these schools are organized around a particular religion. Result: public tax dollars supporting a religious-oriented charter school.

 Some Americans fail to realize that  pursuing "the free exercise" of religion does not mean imposing those beliefs on the rest of the citizens.   If Jehovah's Witnesses believe it's wrong to receive a live-saving blood transfusion, they have no right to think the rest of us should agree. It's time to remember that a "belief" -- religious or otherwise -- is just that, a "belief." It is not a proven fact; it is not a law of nature; it has not been proven. If one has a particular, deeply-held belief, the rest of us should respect his/her right to hold such a belief, but we should also expect you to respect our belief or dis-belief.

* This is one of three such cases that have the federal appeals level. Two have upheld the contraception mandate. A Denver Appeals Court disagreed and ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby's refusal to provide the benefit.  At some point, one of these cases has to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.