"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death." ~George Carlin
"People who govern in the name of God attribute their own personal preferences to God, and therefore recognize no limit in imposing those preferences on other people." ~Justice Douglas Johnstone, Alabama Supreme Court
Interesting article in the Daily Beast: "Britain's Embrace of Gay Marriage." The standout quote in the article, for my money, is this: "Britain is a largely secular society these days, and at least as far as same-sex relationships are concerned, a much more civilized place than was the case in years gone by."
This, of course, will cause Republicans-slash-fundamentalist-Christians in this country to shriek and head for their fainting couches, but it just reinforces my belief--as a religious person--that there should be no co-mingling of religion and politics whatsoever. Injecting religion into politics inevitably leads to discrimination, corruption and bad law, on one side or both. Religion--any religion--is only for those who choose to believe in it, not the population at large.
There are reasons why the First Amendment to the Constitution starts off like this: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." All the things the Founding Fathers could've said, and they began by prohibiting Congress from establishing an official state religion? They must've felt the separation of church and state was damned important.
Too bad modern-day Republicans, for all their blathering about "original intent," have completely lost sight of it on this subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment