Separation of Church & State: Special Comment by my 72-year-old friend

By GottaLaff

My very caring, impassioned 72-year-old Twitter pal, who goes by the name 42bkdodgr, would like to share his feelings about the separation of church and state. I am more than happy to oblige.

But first, a personal note from 42bkdodgr:

Many of you may wonder why I chose to use the “ 72 year old friend” as the introduction to my Special Comments. I selected the moniker so readers could see that from my age and life experiences I give a different perspective to the issues of today.

Now for his Special Comment:

Separation of Church and State

The foundation of this great country is the separation of church and state. It was a principle derived from the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and it made this country different from all other countries in the world at that time.

Over the years I have heard that America is a Judeo-Christian Nation and more recently a Christian Nation. America is neither, we are a nation of believers and non-believers. America is made up of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Baptists, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, other religions, Agnostics and Atheists.

It is the diversity of religions and nationalities that makes America great. Over the years I have seen an attempt to move this country away from the separation of church and state principle.

One of my biggest fears with the growth of right wing Christian Conservatism, is that one day this country will become a theocracy.

The growth of the Religious Right began in the late 1970s with the founding of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, in the 1980s with Pat Robinson’s Christian Coalition and more recently the emergence of Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Their interest is to have more Christian values as part of the public school system and in government.

Over the years Christian conservatives have made statements regarding their feelings about the separation of church and state:

“I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be.” Jerry Falwell, 1979.

“The Constitution of the United States, for instance, is a marvelous document for self-government by the Christian people. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheistic people they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society. And that is what is happening.” Pat Robertson 1/11/85

“The public education movement has also been an anti Christian movement…We can change education in America if you put Christian principles in and Christian pedagogy in. In three years, you would have totally revolutionize education in America.” Pat Robertson, September 27, 1993.

“We’re going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools in America.” Pat Buchanan February 11, 1996.

There has been a growth of conservative religious law schools over the years such as; Liberty Law School (Falwell), Regent University Law School (Robertson) where students are taught to evaluate the law and public policy from a Christian perspective.

The goal of Christian conservatives and graduates of Christian law schools is to become involved in school boards, politics and the judicial systems in order to affect change in the areas of abortion, same-sex marriage, death penalty, school prayer and homosexuality issues.

In recent years events have taken place that raised the level of my concern regarding Christian conservatives attempt to remove the wall between church and state.

• Christian proselytizing in the U.S. Air Force Academy.

• The hiring of alumni from Christian conservative law schools into federal government positions during the Bush Administration. It included the hiring of Monica Goodling who was involved in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys, and Kay Cole James, dean of Regent’s government school to be the Director of Personnel Management in the Bush Administration.

• The distribution of the bible and proselytizing to the Afghan people by U.S. Army personnel.

• Texas state law requiring that public schools incorporate Bible literacy into its curriculum.

• “C Street House” revelation.

I write this Special Comment to express my concerns and feelings about the Christian conservatives belief that their form of Christianity should be the religion of choice in this country and government should operate under their values. Should that ever happen, this country would be no different from the Taliban enforcing their version of Islam when they ruled Afghanistan.

Great thanks again for another timely, thoughtful, and very welcome piece, 42bkdodgr.

By the way, I agree with this piece wholeheartedly. 42bkdodgr had some concerns about posting it, but I think it's obvious that it is not meant to offend anyone, and is in no way condemning or criticizing anyone's personal religious beliefs. It's purely an opinion piece based on the current tumultuous political atmosphere.