From the Chicago Tribune:
UNIONTOWN, Ohio – An atheist group is complaining about an Ohio school district’s mission statement listing “belief in God” among its values.
Co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation calls the statement on a recent Lake Local Schools newsletter shocking and a serious violation of the separation of church and state. The Madison, Wis.-based foundation, which represents atheists and agnostics, has written to officials in the northeast Ohio district asking that they immediately remove “belief in God” from school publications and Web sites.
Superintendent Jeff Wendorf says officials and district lawyers are looking into the matter. He says the phrase has been included in the mission statement for years.
I think people need a little history lesson. This may not be the typical one you’re used to if you’re a Conservative…you know, Letter to the Danbury… No, this will go much deeper.
Most of us know that the phrase separation of Church and Statenever appears in the Constitution. Often times, when enemies of religion–strike that–enemies of Christianity and Judaism (atheists don’t seem to have issues with Islam, Wicca, Paganism, Zoroastrianism, or Feline Anal Worship). Anyway, the enemies of Christianity like the morons above love to recite Jefferson’s letter as if that is written law and they (inappropriately) quote the Establishment Clause. Here’s what they always forget to quote…and what they fail to realize or hope you don’t know.
What anti-Christian and anti-Jew zealots forget / ignore
Immediately following the Establishment Clause is the Free Exercise Clause. The same sentence of the Constitution they use to say government and any person under government care or pay cannot mention God, also says, “[N]or prohibit the free exercise thereof.” So, if a law cannot be created to recognize a particular religion, neither can one be created that forbids recognition. Moreover, the First Amendment sentence begins “Congress shall make no law…” Congress is a federal body.
Now, some will claim the Fourteenth Amendment means the Bill of Rights applies to the states, counties, cities, etc. But if that were the truth, then every city or state with a gun ban would be violating the Bill of Rights. No, it appears they get to pick and choose which ones they want to apply at whim.
Here are the facts no one wants you to know
On June 9, 1789, James Madison proposed the first amendments to the Constitution. here’s how he worded what we now know as Freedom of Religion:
The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed.
The two most important things to take from this are, Madison claimed no “national” religion should be established (created) and second (and more importantly), nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed. What is it but a false “pretext” upon which the morons at the Freedom From Religion Foundation would infringe upon the full and equal rights of everyone else?
There are a couple of other items of import.
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