On May 2, 10:30 pm, Orval Fairbairn <
orfairba...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> In article
> <
0f82b3f6-9a71-49b0-b2bd-f09390c09...@e9g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
> Bret Cahill <
Bret_E_Cah...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > > The founders would have considered Scalia attempts to weaken
> > > > separation of church and state nothing short of obscene.
>
> > > You've divined the intent of the founders? Amazing!
>
> > Only an ignorant tire biter would think "reading the Constitution" was
> > "amazing."
And as I said, only a sophomoric ignoramus would think separation of
Church and State was written into the US Constitution.
> > > Where is your
> > > documentation of *any* of the founders besides Thomas Jefferson
> > > writing about "the separation of church and state"?
And, ironically, Jefferson's stress was on the state keeping its hands
off the church, rather than vice versa. He would have been appalled
at Obama strong-arming Catholic universities, hospitals, etc. into
violating their consciences.
Notre Dame got NO traction out of giving Obama that honorary
doctorate.
> > It wasn't just the founders, but _all_ Americans of that era.
Sheer baloney.
> > Seven Revolutionary era state constitutions had an outright ban on
> > ministers running for public office and "public opinion precluded it
> > everywhere else."
>
> > Bret Cahill
No relative of Lisa Cahill, I hope.
> They had very good reasons to separate Church from the State.
Looks like y'all are treating sCftS as a catchall phrase that means
anything you want it to mean.
I believe liberals call this technique "the living Constitution". ;-)
> After all,
> the Constitution was written less than 100 years after the Salem withc
> trials. In addition, several of the Colonies had established religion in
> their charters.
Yes, and I believe Connecticut kept it that way until ca. 1830.
The first amendment forbade Congress to make any law abolishing it.
The word "respecting" meant "with respect to," and it was a knife that
cut both ways. On the one hand, Congress could not make any law
establishing a national church. But equally, it could not
disestablish any state established churches.
States were very jealous of their rights in those days. Did you know
Patrick Henry was against the US Constitution because he thought it
gave too much power to the federal government, even after everyone was
assured the Bill of Rights would be added? It took Herculean efforts
by Madison
et.al. (federalist papers and all that) to get New York to
approve the Constitution.
> As Mark Twain remarked, "Preachers promise Heaven on Earth, but they
> deliver Hell."
Mark Twain was an embittered cynic in his later years. I prefer Harry
S Truman's "They think I give them hell, but I give them the truth,
and they think it's hell."
> The same can be said for Socialists, Communists, Fascists, Islamists and
> any other ism that wishes to impose itself on people and take away their
> personal and/or economic freedom.
I'll go along with that to a great extent. Right now, Obama is moving
us towards the kind of fascism one sees in Communist China: lots of
scope for entrepreneurs (including AFAIK some big businesses) but
curtailed personal freedoms.
Contraception is a big business, and some drug companies are drooling
at the prospect of women turning up their noses at generics and going
for the expensive brands, which they can make even more expensive.
It's no skin off the noses of the women, they don't even have to copay
like we have to do for life-saving medicine.
And Obama is in bed with these companies, and with Planned Parenthood.
Peter Nyikos