<Yoor...@Jurgis.net> wrote in message
news:sa2tk7t24cmms71kj...@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:30:58 -0600, RD Sandman
> <rdsandman[spamremove]@
comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>> I do care that the school rounds up the children and has them study
>>> the bible. I do care that I may be jailed for not carrying my bible.
>>> These are examples of imposing religion on me, and I am expressly
>>> protected from this happening. But I am only protected by the 1st
>>> Amendment from being forced to worship, I am not protected from the
>>> random exposure that is meaningless if I am allowed to ignore it. You,
>>> and your ilk, are railing against simple exposure as if that exposure
>>> is a symptom of something more. Rail against real harm, and I'll be
>>> there screaming at the top of my lungs with you. But there is no harm
>>> from the simple display of something that I do not agree with and
>>> which I am allowed to ignore.
>>
>>Well said.....again.
>
> Except that's extreme fanciful dreaming
>
> The real issue is for the denial, introduction, or use of government
> to predicate votes based on religious conviction.
>
> Government/politics is a system of debate and compromise.
>
> If the growing number of legislators who introduce religious
> conviction as reason for a vote, or refuse to debate or compromise on
> legislation citing personal belief, we have what we're now
> experiencing
>
> It is a fact that "principles" are supposed to remain constant. Fine
> for personal life
>
> A politician is a public figure--elected to do public work where
> thousands, maybe millions of citizens rely on their representation.
>
> If they cannot compromise on public policy because of religious
> belief--then they are creating government that is bad.
>
What part of, of the people, for the people, and by the people causes you so
much confusion.
The People, by its very definition is a majority of the population. Social
values ebb and flow as the population changes, and We the People have the
power to make the rules as they would conform to out ideals. We make those
rules in the House and Senate, collectively called Congress. The occupants
of Congress reflect the make up of the society as a whole. A few malcontents
work from virtually every angle to beat the rest of us into submission, and
that is wrong.
There is no fanciful dreaming, at least not from me. I look at the rules as
the court has laid them down, and I see them as flawed to the point that
there is social unrest as a result. We already have prayer in Congress, Ten
Commandments on the walls of the highest court in the land, a National Motto
on each and every piece of currency in existance since 1954, and many pieces
of currency long before that.
You assert that you want to ban religion only from government, but it is
clear that what you really want is to ban religion. You already said, just
yesterday, that the Ten Commandments have, "no inherent divinity evident,"
yet despite your own admitted lack of divinity you continue to insist that
the Ten Commandments is so steeped in religion as to violate the separation
clause. And, you have demonstrated absolutely no harm done by the Ten
Commandments or the cross on the hill or anything else. All you demonstrate
over and over again is that the formerly permissible display of religious
icons violates the separation of church and state, yet the separation of
church and state is nothing more than a passing muse in an obscure writing
of Thomas Jefferson, it is not a law that has made itself present in the
Constitution, nor in any legislative action since.
Clearly there are governmental intrusions into religion and religious
intrusions into government, and we must remain vigilent to these
transgressions and work tirelessly to prevent them, or unwind them after
they occur. Clearly this is true. And you do this on the grounds of
separation.
But the mere presence of religion does not an endorsement make, and so what
if it is endorsed, the prohibition is against the establishment thereof. You
are agruing for the better part of a decade that I have been on Usenet that
any and all religion is banned by the separation clause. I have been arguing
that separation should only be invoked when there is some manner of harm.
Harm comes in many faces, but the mere exposure to religion on public
property is harmless.
We the People have a general make up, and we elect representatives that fit
what we think our make up is. We grow up being taught by our parents and
other significant adults, we get married and bring our onw children into the
world where they are taught by us and other significant adults. With each
generation, the social make up changes a little this way, then a little that
way, and back again. That's how it works. In a perfect world, we would
always make a step forward followed by another. In the real world we make
two steps forward and a step back, then two forward, then another and
another, then three steps back. That's life. That's what all of the people
say.
When a step forward, or back, causes harm then we have a court system that
helps us toward a remedy. You clog the court with arguments for which the
remedy is to prevent harm that has not happened. You dream harm, and for
that you seek remedy.