Protestantism

» Brian Tubbs - Republic

Every interest group tries to elect leaders and enact policies friendly to their agenda. It is NO different with Christian conservatives. Yet, somehow, I'm getting the feel (particularly from Pink and, to some extent, from Migisi and PaperTurtle as well) that there needs to be some special or extraordinary limitation placed on Christian conservatives. They can't play in the public policy sandbox like the other groups. No, they have to jump through a few extra hoops (mixing metaphors, I know) in order to play.

I am 100% supportive of the First Amendment's establishment clause. Check your history, and you'll find that the BAPTISTS (of which I am one) were at the forefront of making sure Church and State were institutionally separated in the United States. The whole "wall of separation" thing comes from a letter Mr. Jefferson wrote to a BAPTIST association.

The Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that no one denomination or faith group controlled the government to the detriment of other denominations - as was the case with Great Britain. In Britain, the Church of England IS part of the state. Church and State are intertwined. Today, it's largely just symbolic, but back in the 1700s, it was much more substantive. Colonists in some English colonies, including Virginia, had to pay taxes to support the salaries of Anglican ministers. Non-Anglican ministers had to be licensed and were subject to levels of regulation by the royal governor and/or colonial legislature. This is what the Baptists (and others) were protesting.

So, the Founding Fathers erected a wall of separation to make sure that no religious entity would be intertwined ORGANIZATIONALLY and OFFICIALLY with the US government. But, this was NEVER - and I repeat NEVER - a separation of God and/or religious morality from the public square! At least not in the minds of the Founding Fathers.

If it were, then you all have A LOT of explaining to do with the actions, policies, and rhetoric of our early Founding Fathers - including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and on and on.

What you all are doing is saying that religious leaders or groups (Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, etc) who organize and/or lobby and/or speak out to influence the political process should be held SUSPECT and should be eyed very carefully. That they should be given not quite the same amount of latitude as other special interest groups who seek to engage the political process.

THAT is a bias that America's Founding Fathers would not share. Pink, Migisi, and Paper Turtle - you are free to believe what you want and to vote what you want and to organize however you want (I am not the one advocating any restrictions here)..BUT...

Make no mistake about it. You are out of step with the Founders of this country. (Oh, and Pink, my reading of the Founders includes but also goes beyond Thomas Paine and third party sources like David Hackett Fisher).