Thursday, December 21, 2006
Bush & the Constitution
There was one and only one thing new and unique in the Constitution of the United States. It consists of 16 words: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
These 16 words provide for, nay demand, the separation of church and state. Lincoln, while he may have been a white supremacist who was doing some political maneuvering knew enough to keep religion and God out of his speeches for the most part.
Bush on the other hand has told people God wanted him to be president, wanted him in the White House and wanted him to invade Iraq. Bush opened an office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House and handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants--known in Washington as "pork for preachers." Almost all of it has gone directly to conservative Christian churches.
He signed an executive order allowing churches that receive federal funds for so-called faith-based programs to practice religious discrimination: hiring as staff members only those who belong to the same church.
Then there is the voucher program that gives parents FEDERAL FUNDS (yes your tax dollars) to spend on tuition at private religious schools. Also the Bush administration approved a federally funded health plan for Catholics only; excluding insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortion, sterilization, or artificial insemination. Bus instituted a religious test for judges with a promise to only appoint those who understood our rights were derived from God. ( I sorta thought they were derived from the Constitution, whose authorship has never to my knowledge been attributed to God.)
Employees of federal agencies, the White House and the Justice department are under pressure to start their day by attending "voluntary" Bible study and prayer meetings.
House Republicans introduced the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, which would allow churches to endorse political candidates, broadcast issue ads, and engage in political fund-raising--without losing their tax-exempt status.
It may begin to appear that the religious right owns the Republican Party. This is not an illusion, and is most evident in the Terri Schiavo case where special legislation that applied only to one person was enacted when the majority of the people felt there should not be government intervention.
Democrats have done their share to blur the lines of separation of church and state,
religion and politics. Franklin Roosevelt shocked and angered many Protestant leaders by giving Myron C. Taylor ambassadorial status as his personal representative to the Vatican and by naming New York's Cardinal Francis J. Spellman military vicar of the U.S. Armed Forces. It was Clinton who first raised the idea of vouchers to religious schools from federal funds. The first governor to take advantage of those funds was George W Bush.
In fact, the move today is towards destruction of the first amendment's guarantee of separation of church and state. Politicians urge the backing of "faith based initiatives" to "rebuke" the idea of separation of church and state that has been "imposed upon us" for years.
See, here is the thing. Not all Americans are Christians. Not all share the beliefs of Christians, and the country basically started so that religious freedom could be a reality. If you merge politics and religion, you no longer have freedom of religion. You are no longer free to worship in your own way to your own set of beliefs.
Religious right leaders have bandied about quotes for many of our forefathers, later to admit they could find no original sources for them, and that in fact these "quotes" had been made up by someone somewhere. Because these leaders are known, and generally respected, their words are taken as absolute truths by the masses.
More and more of Bush's speeches include references to God and pretty much NO references to laws, of which Bush continues to violate when they do not fit his personal agenda to make war on the world.
He is in a war that cannot be won but insists we must win. He ignores all the suggestions that include bringing home our soldiers within a given time line, and continues to alienate other nations. He is seen as the bully on the block, which in fact he is. So numerous are his double standards (one for him and another for any other country that does not follow his lead), so flagrant are his violations of our own laws, and so poor are his reasons that it baffles me that the American people have not risen up in revolt already.
Bush is fast becoming the NEO-HITLER, who next will introduce legislation stopping elections using as his reason that we are involved in such a world conflict that we cannot be bothered with them or worse, that it would be impossible to "change horses" mid stream.
Beware, this same scenario played out in Germany in the 1930's.
These 16 words provide for, nay demand, the separation of church and state. Lincoln, while he may have been a white supremacist who was doing some political maneuvering knew enough to keep religion and God out of his speeches for the most part.
Bush on the other hand has told people God wanted him to be president, wanted him in the White House and wanted him to invade Iraq. Bush opened an office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House and handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants--known in Washington as "pork for preachers." Almost all of it has gone directly to conservative Christian churches.
He signed an executive order allowing churches that receive federal funds for so-called faith-based programs to practice religious discrimination: hiring as staff members only those who belong to the same church.
Then there is the voucher program that gives parents FEDERAL FUNDS (yes your tax dollars) to spend on tuition at private religious schools. Also the Bush administration approved a federally funded health plan for Catholics only; excluding insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortion, sterilization, or artificial insemination. Bus instituted a religious test for judges with a promise to only appoint those who understood our rights were derived from God. ( I sorta thought they were derived from the Constitution, whose authorship has never to my knowledge been attributed to God.)
Employees of federal agencies, the White House and the Justice department are under pressure to start their day by attending "voluntary" Bible study and prayer meetings.
House Republicans introduced the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, which would allow churches to endorse political candidates, broadcast issue ads, and engage in political fund-raising--without losing their tax-exempt status.
It may begin to appear that the religious right owns the Republican Party. This is not an illusion, and is most evident in the Terri Schiavo case where special legislation that applied only to one person was enacted when the majority of the people felt there should not be government intervention.
Democrats have done their share to blur the lines of separation of church and state,
religion and politics. Franklin Roosevelt shocked and angered many Protestant leaders by giving Myron C. Taylor ambassadorial status as his personal representative to the Vatican and by naming New York's Cardinal Francis J. Spellman military vicar of the U.S. Armed Forces. It was Clinton who first raised the idea of vouchers to religious schools from federal funds. The first governor to take advantage of those funds was George W Bush.
In fact, the move today is towards destruction of the first amendment's guarantee of separation of church and state. Politicians urge the backing of "faith based initiatives" to "rebuke" the idea of separation of church and state that has been "imposed upon us" for years.
See, here is the thing. Not all Americans are Christians. Not all share the beliefs of Christians, and the country basically started so that religious freedom could be a reality. If you merge politics and religion, you no longer have freedom of religion. You are no longer free to worship in your own way to your own set of beliefs.
Religious right leaders have bandied about quotes for many of our forefathers, later to admit they could find no original sources for them, and that in fact these "quotes" had been made up by someone somewhere. Because these leaders are known, and generally respected, their words are taken as absolute truths by the masses.
More and more of Bush's speeches include references to God and pretty much NO references to laws, of which Bush continues to violate when they do not fit his personal agenda to make war on the world.
He is in a war that cannot be won but insists we must win. He ignores all the suggestions that include bringing home our soldiers within a given time line, and continues to alienate other nations. He is seen as the bully on the block, which in fact he is. So numerous are his double standards (one for him and another for any other country that does not follow his lead), so flagrant are his violations of our own laws, and so poor are his reasons that it baffles me that the American people have not risen up in revolt already.
Bush is fast becoming the NEO-HITLER, who next will introduce legislation stopping elections using as his reason that we are involved in such a world conflict that we cannot be bothered with them or worse, that it would be impossible to "change horses" mid stream.
Beware, this same scenario played out in Germany in the 1930's.
