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This is the Jesus Christ of the Jebus Crusters (Note: NOT Semitic)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Cruster Plot to Mythologize Separation of Church and State: Comment on Origin of the Phrase
The phrase itself is, I believe, from a letter of Thomas Jefferson, my main man. The evangelical boobs and T Party types claim that this proves the phrase is not in any founding document, but just as the Supremes latched on to the concept of a legal umbrella in the First Amendment and found a right to abortion there as a result, the First Amendment by clear implication disallows any government involvement in religion and, I argue, vice-versa as well. But the trend is away from the umbrella and back at the mercy of the elements. When you stop to think that the same old Catholic justices form the "New Majority," you get skewed results. Do you really think Scalia leaves his faith at the door when he comes to work?
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Hey Mr. Martin! Thanks for your comments on Contextual Criticism.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be looking through your blog at length, but I certainly like what I see so far.
It is true that separation of church and state is fundamental to the well-being of our country, and it is also true that there should be no religious test for any political office.
But there is a problem re the latter. There is a de-facto religious test that must be answered correctly in the minds of millions of teapot kooks and Repugnican nogoodniks.
Even worse, normal people who dislike the whole idea of a religious test can no longer avoid the fact that our presidential wannabes confess to believe in all kinds of dangerous nonsense and like Scalia, do not leave those beliefs at the door of their particular domain. That means that people like Perry or Bachmann, dominionists to the core, are serious threats to our constitutional democracy!
I don't have any answers but I sure as hell am discouraged by the state of affairs in our affairs of state!
The Chief Justice, along with Scalia, Alito, Kennedy, and Thomas, the so-called New Majority on the Supreme Court are ALL Catholics. Scalia's Roman faith surfaces in many of his opinions, which are far right. I would not be surprised if a case in which the church-state barrier is blatantly violated passes muster with the Scalia Court.
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