Rand Paul hasn’t read the establishment clause —>
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) Rand Paul: "The First Amendment says keep government out of religion. It doesn't say keep religion out of government" http://t.co/cqTvHvgDPH
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) March 29, 2015
>March 29, 2015
From the Legal Information Institute:
The First Amendment's Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. It also prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion.
The 1st Amendment doesn't say government shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion." It says CONGRESS shall make no law "respecting an establishment of religion." Congress is a branch lawmaking of the Federal government. The originalist view is that framers specifically limited or rather forbade the Federal government to make laws establishing a religion but left the matter open to the states. The atheist Supreme Court, on its on, extending it to the states.
ReplyDeleteAnother spectacular low for Wenzel. What does "keeping X out of Y" mean? Does it mean that "X should not meddle with Y" ?
ReplyDeleteWithout even putting forth a plausible reason for why Rand's claim is wrong under every possible interpretation, Wenzel reverts to the quick-hit-job-lazy-blogger-traffic-slut-gossip-monger style and merely prefers to keep the gossip going.
Just put some links to porn if you are having trouble putting up quality content to drive traffic.
One of these days, your Karma will catch up with you Wenzel. Your opponents will also pick and choose the most uncharitable interpretations of your words, and the mindless blogosphere will blow it up completely out of proportion.
It doesn't look to me like Wenzel took anything out of context.
DeleteCould you put what Rand said into a different context?
Waiting...
Robert Wenzel has called attention to Rand Paul's drift toward a group of people who are wholly ignorant of why the founding fathers of this former republic wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights near the end of 18th century in regard to religion.
DeleteIf Rand Paul or the evangelic Christians he is courting knew the true history of England and later Great Britain, they would understand why individuals like Thomas Jefferson believed in a separation of "Church and State". Today's evangelical Christians have a quaint embroidered version of history because they can't handle the truth of how mankind brutalized one another in the name of religion in England from 400 BC onward.
In 60 AD the Romans burned the Celtic equivalent of the Vatican on the Island of Vnes Mons and destroyed the writings of the druidic priesthood which began the destruction of their faith.
In the reign of Diocletian Christians were killed for their beliefs.
In 325 Constantine merged the Christian Church and State
In 430 the Saxons slaughtered, raped, and enslaved the Christians of Romano-Britain.
In 597AD the first Anglo-Saxon king accepted christianity.
In 796 AD the Viking God Thor gave a victory to the Vikings when they raided Lindisfarne.
In 1066 Norman King William the Conquerer defeated the Anglo-Saxons and subverted Anglo-Saxon law and brought Jewish financial advisors as the kings own personal chattel.
In 1189 Jews were tortured and murdered by friends of King Richard I during his coronation.
In 1218 Jews were forced by the king to wear white badges depicting the ten commandments.
In 1218 Jews were no longer allowed to leave England.
In 1253 Jews were restricted to 25 towns in England.
In 1290 around 15,000 Jews were banished from England.
In 1401 De Herettico Comburendo became law and the Lollard Christians were burned alive.
In 1534 William Tyndale was called a heretic for having translated the bible into english.
In 1535 King Henry VIII had the Carthusian monks executed.
King Henry VIII had 72,000 individuals executed for treason against the Church of England.
Death squads executed Cornish protestors of English Common Prayer books in Cornwall.
Queen Mary I burned alive 300 people for being heretics against the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1575 Roman Catholics of Ireland were suppressed for their faith by England's military.
In 1577 John Dee conjured the English Empire from myth after creating the Enochian language to summon demons to advise him.
In 1601 Queen Elizabeth I had all the Black Moors who lived in the country banished.
In 1604 the pedophile, and homosexual King James I became king of England.
In 1604 King James I created the Witch Craft Act which targeted Roman Catholic witches.
In 1605 Roman Catholics were targeted after the Gunpowder plot.
In 1611 the King James I Bible was published by the pedophile king.
In 1612 the Roman Catholic Pendle witches were hung.
Pilgrim John Winthrop brought John Dee's beliefs to the colonies.
In 1641 Roman Catholic in Ireland were sold in mass into slavery in the new world colonies.
In 1652 Oliver Cromwell reached out to Menasseh Ben Israel of Amsterdam because he was seeking financiers for the 200 warships he was building to enrich the English Empire. Amsterdam was the home of the worlds second private central bank which was created in 1608. The first private central bank was created in the city of Venice in 1587 by Jesuit Priest Paolo Sarpi, leader of the Venetian Giovani Party.
The despotic ruler Oliver Cromwell started a slow migration of Jews back to England.
The point of this exercise is to explain that at any given point in time a religious group of people can be in, or out of favor depending on the whim of a select few, and that we should all respect one anthers rights as free individuals in a turbulent and unforgiving world. We as individuals are all endangered by the actions of people like Rand Paul who seek to act as a religious judges of other peoples actions.
"Paul told the pastors that they have a role in Washington and that prayer is a part of government.
Delete"The First Amendment says keep government out of religion. It doesn't say keep religion out of government," Paul said, according to the video."
Pastors have a role in government - this does not imply that mullahs don't have a role in government. You people here need to take elementary logic lessons.
What almost everyone expects (dreamily) of government officials is that they stay honest and true to their word. Religion is one of the avenues that keeps some people honest (at least in some narrow circles), and can influence politicians as well to keep true to their word.
The First Amendment as quoted in the post does not imply that pastors have no role in government. Pastors can provide services to government employees.
What Wenzel should be focusing on here is on the obvious lobbying that is going on. Instead Wenzel takes the stupid route of spreading illogical gossip.
Logic is something that seems to be totally lacking in Republican evangelical Christian circles when it comes to the subject of U.S. military involvement in every war over the past 123 years. Why would anyone in their right mind listen to a group of people who only know how to react with a herd mentality to state propaganda, and are incapable of looking at the long term consequences of virtually anything.
DeleteRand Paul's quest to appease the Republican evangelic Christian demographic shows that he has no understanding of their demographic decline over the past four generations or their bleak future in regard to Millennials. He stands on the wrong side of both the past and the future in regard to the siding with Republican evangelical Christians, so where is the logic to be found in his cluelessness of easily verifiable facts.