Mr. President, Rebuild that Wall!
By Annie Laurie Gaylor, Co-President, Freedom From Religion Foundation
Secular activists and nonreligious Americans have been steeling ourselves and lowering our expectations, in recognition that our causes and issues likely will not be showing up on Barack Obama's list of priorities.
We've even been making excuses. After all, the next president will inherit an unenviable bottomless pit of problems, from the Iraq war and broken infrastructure to the unprecedented nosedive of the American economy.
But those of us who espouse secularism should not sell ourselves, or our cause, short. Many of the problems that Barack Obama will surely rank as priorities have their roots in religion, and its entanglement in government, such as:
The Gaza slaughter. Such violence has only faith--the devout belief that a god gives or takes away land--to blame.
The Iraq war. It was a logical outgrowth of the Bush Administration's "Operation Infinite Justice." Bush initially referred to his post-9/11 retaliations as a "crusade," a gaffe he quickly retracted, but not before the Islamic world took notice.
Embryonic stem-cell line limitations. The only reason Bush froze embryonic stem-cell lines, crippling and delaying American medical and scientific research, was to kowtow to the Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops and assorted religious-right lobbies. More than 70% of Americans firmly support embryonic stem cell research. Congress supported it. Even Nancy Reagan supports it! If there was ever an object lesson in the harm of basing science on faith, it is these senseless vetoes by Bush.
The global gag rule. The cut-off of international family planning funding to any health clinic even mentioning abortions was first imposed at the behest of the Vatican in 1984 by Pres. Ronald Reagan. It was rescinded by Pres. Clinton, then re-imposed as Pres. Bush's first action as president to placate the religious right, once more creating acute and unnecessary misery around the world. Likewise, faith-based AIDS funding (some of which has gone to the ministry of Obama's invited inaugural minister, Rev. Rick Warren) has been used to proselytize and deny condoms.
The environment. Environmental degradation, global warming, lack of federal regulation of despoilers and polluters all worsened not just in the corporate take-all free market, but because of the religious philosophy first openly espoused by James Watt. Many in the religious right truly believe God gave America and corporations dominion over the planet, and that all we really need to worry about is the condition of our souls in the next life, anyway.
The past Administration's demonstrated lack of concern for human law or humanity is rooted in a reactionary religious contempt for this world. God, not government, cares for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the lost and wounded lives of Iraq, Afghan and Gazan citizens, for the condition of our planet, our bridges, for fairness, equality, safety, regulations of corporations and Wall Street . . .
The judiciary. Obama's election averted the threat of a worsening Supreme Court, which currently has a 5-4 majority pulling in the wrong direction. But Bush's unprecedented appointments to the federal judiciary, his replacement of swing vote Sandra Day O'Connor by true believer Samuel Alito, were faith-based appointments. The GOP litmus test is not only antiabortion but would exclude anyone who would consider ruling that "under God" should not have been inserted into the once-secular Pledge of Allegiance.
The greatest unlauded power of the U.S. President is really the power to set an example and tone. Obama has already made some missteps, inviting a fundamentalist, antigay preacher to open his swearing-in, pledging to rename the "faith-based initiative" to the "faith-based council," instead of rescinding Bush's unpopular executive orders. Pres. Obama should dismantle Bush's disastrous, divisive and wasteful "faith-based" giveaway, intended to court theocratic votes and reduce secular welfare services. Obama needs to rebuild the Jeffersonian "wall of separation between church and state."
Barack Obama needs to run his government on facts, reason and the U.S. Constitution, and let religion take care of itself.
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You tell me--what kind of shape would our government be in without religion--faith--or belief in the ways of God? Many people have a lot of Book knowledge but they have no reasoning or common sense. Ignorance is the lack of knowledge, education, and experience. They think that they are wise and smart but they prove to be ignorant and stupid with their words.
Take religion, or the belief in the book called the Bible, away from our government and you will have a disasterous government. What kind of shape or form would our country be in if you people destroyed the image that the book represents ("Let us make man in our IMAGE after our LIKENESS")and take it completely out of the sight and minds of the people? The whole purpose of The Bible is to join every man, woman, and child together to become like minded. Can't people understand WORDS that they read in a sentence?
Take another look--Let us MAKE MAN in our IMAGE--Is an image a person or a physical body? An image is a representation of a person, or thing. It is a visual impression. If this representation or visual impression of a person is bothering you so much, then keep this impression out of your life. Does it mean so much to you to destroy the GOD figure out of our government? What will you gain? You don't gain--YOU LOSE!
Lets do a little more reasoning--"Let us make man in our image--AFTER OUR LIKENESS.
The book-that is a representation of a person called God and Jesus is not making people--The books PURPOSE is make an exact copy or exact replica of a Godly figure whose LIKENESS is in the WAYS of the LORD.
Jesus said, "I AM the WAY". You, along with many others, are determined to destroy this word "religion" by this "wall of seperation". If one would take the time to look at the WALL that people tried to build in Bible--Genesis Chapter 11--they would see what is happening right now with our government's intrepretation of the "Wall of Seperation". Thomas Jefferson's wall of seperation statement was to seperate RELIGIONS from government not Gods Word.
To him, man made religions were a big JOKE. To him, they took your hard earned money from you so they could teach you how to understand a very in depth book about the good and bad WAYS of life. Religions all use their Bibles to teach good and right WAYS: characters, behaviors, attitudes, etc . To him, there was no religion better than the other religion. He did not believe in RELIGION--nor do I. He believed in GODS WORD being the truth. He did not need a RELIGION to interpret the BIBLE or try to run his life for him. He did not want to account to some religion for his actions, his ways, or his decisions on how to run a country. He did not have to hear a "said translation" to the words that he read because he was one of the few men on this earth who could understand what he was reading.
If one would take their eyes off of the image of God one would see that it is the likeness of GODS WAYS which makes our government better than any other form of government in the world. Our government differs in customs, manners, and WAYS from every other country in the world--We are a loving--caring--gentle--giving country made AFTER the LIKENESS of GOD. We are a country that punishes bad and evil made AFTER THE LIKENESS OF GOD. We pass JUDGMENT AFTER THE LIKENESS OF GOD. Our government gives people many chances to straighten out their ways and behaviors of life before passing sentence just like the WAYS of God.
In order to have a likeness--one's mind must be made like anothers.
Do we need God like MINDS running our government or God like customs, manners, and WAYS running our government?
I, like Thomas Jefferson, say religions have no part whatsoever in government. I don't want to live under a rule of religious beliefs. Only way to have a good and right government is to run a government under the WAYS OF GOD and JESUS CHRIST.
Obamas top priority is to put the MIND of God first in all his decisions and everything else will fall into place. Jesus said, "I AM the WAY--the TRUTH--and the LIFE. Let us run a government AFTER THE LIKENESS or the WAYS the Bibles teaches and stick to it's rules and regulations in all WAYS. Let the WAYS guide and direct our government in the right direction not the man Obama. Just like religions--or said translations-- His ways might not be right.
There is no religious tests to become a public official--we will soon see if for ourselves if this man is a godly man or not. His actions will let us know what kind of man he really is. I wish him the best.
God Bless this--OUR UNITED STATES OF AMERICA--our GOVERNMENT!
We have so much fighting over this word "RELIGION" which is the whole wall of seperation itself.
It looks like the secularists will have to
keep their eight-year "guerilla war" going
to prevent further erosion of the church-state wall.
On this and other "third-rail issues, Obama
looks like a "play-it-safe" kinda guy.
Religion should be treated just the same way that the conservatives wanted to treat the failing auto companies. If it can't stand on it's own, it should be allowed to fail.
The Bush administration through the faith-based initiatives has greatly damaged the separation of church and state. This issue is of utmost importance to me.