July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Good news about freedom of religion (01/13/06)
Letter to the Editor
To the editor:
Good news does happen some of the time, we just don’t always hear it.
I have wondered for a long time where people got the idea about separation of Church and State. Major court decisions have been made based on this statement. Quite often it is quoted as being a part of the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Let me quote for you from the first amendment, I just happen to have a copy here: “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.”
I might be a little bit slow, but I just don’t see anywhere in there that says anything about separating the church from government property or actions. There is no mention of government employees being forbidden from speaking or acting according to their religious convictions, either on the job or off.
The forbidding is all one way, from Congress out. There is no forbidding of the church. It does say that Congress can’t make any law about religion or prohibiting anyone from exercising their own religion.
This is precisely what has been happening.
When a court denies a person the right to pray to the God that he or she knows, that court is going against the Constitution. When the people of a particular area want to display certain religious articles on public property that is the business of that governmental entity, the persons entrusted with the overseeing of that property, not the courts; and certainly not some obscure person or persons 100 or a 1,000 miles away who happen to hear about it.
The good news that I was referring to earlier is a report that I read on the American Family Association e-mail site.
They report that last month (December 2005), “the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a Ten Commandments display in Mercer County, Kentucky, was constitutional. However, as part of the ruling, the court declared that the First Amendment does not demand a wall separating church and state.”
This was a unanimous decision.
It is also noted that “the Sixth Circuit described the ACLU’s continual reference to such a separation as “not only tiresome but extra-Constitutional — outside the Constitution.”
The AFA closes its article with an encouragement for patriotic people across the nation to hold a day of prayer in thanksgiving for this awakening in the high courts.
The Rev. James M. Patch
Decatur (Pastor of New Corydon United Methodist Church)[[In-content Ad]]
Good news does happen some of the time, we just don’t always hear it.
I have wondered for a long time where people got the idea about separation of Church and State. Major court decisions have been made based on this statement. Quite often it is quoted as being a part of the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Let me quote for you from the first amendment, I just happen to have a copy here: “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.”
I might be a little bit slow, but I just don’t see anywhere in there that says anything about separating the church from government property or actions. There is no mention of government employees being forbidden from speaking or acting according to their religious convictions, either on the job or off.
The forbidding is all one way, from Congress out. There is no forbidding of the church. It does say that Congress can’t make any law about religion or prohibiting anyone from exercising their own religion.
This is precisely what has been happening.
When a court denies a person the right to pray to the God that he or she knows, that court is going against the Constitution. When the people of a particular area want to display certain religious articles on public property that is the business of that governmental entity, the persons entrusted with the overseeing of that property, not the courts; and certainly not some obscure person or persons 100 or a 1,000 miles away who happen to hear about it.
The good news that I was referring to earlier is a report that I read on the American Family Association e-mail site.
They report that last month (December 2005), “the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed a lower court’s ruling that a Ten Commandments display in Mercer County, Kentucky, was constitutional. However, as part of the ruling, the court declared that the First Amendment does not demand a wall separating church and state.”
This was a unanimous decision.
It is also noted that “the Sixth Circuit described the ACLU’s continual reference to such a separation as “not only tiresome but extra-Constitutional — outside the Constitution.”
The AFA closes its article with an encouragement for patriotic people across the nation to hold a day of prayer in thanksgiving for this awakening in the high courts.
The Rev. James M. Patch
Decatur (Pastor of New Corydon United Methodist Church)[[In-content Ad]]
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