Missouri's New State Religion
Since the new conservative, coat hanger-sponsored Supreme Court has been seated, the local government in the Red States are going a little nuts. First we had South Dakota trying to outright ban abortions (including for women raped or in cases of incest), and other states including Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee are just drooling at the opportunity to limit women's reproductive choices.
Missouri has decided to test our new federal theocracy even further, and build one of their own at the state level. They’ve introduced a bill that would make Christianity the official religion of the state, thus ignoring any Church/State concerns, and making other religions and those who don’t subscribe to a religion, secondary.
Well isn’t this cute.
If this passes, we’ll have the Christian version 10 Commandments, 80% of which have nothing to do with American law, posted on public buildings and in schools, which will be the perfect wall hanging backdrop during public school prayers.
Got Jewish children or one that doesn’t attend Church in the Missouri school system? Wish them luck while this new atmosphere further divides already cliquey, insecure, kids who are just learning about people’s differences and culture into a group which has one more thing to segregate themselves over. Just ask someone who already has to deal with being a member of Missouri’s de facto minority religions, before the government literally decides to make it official, and sanction their minority status via state law.
It seems that the good conservatives of Missouri don't seem to realize the separation of Church and State guarantees freedom of religion, freedom from religion, and protection from any government interference in our religion.
I’m sure the Missouri legislature has proposed this bill due to the overwhelming oppression of Christians living in Missouri, especially in the rural areas. The Christians who have been forced to hide under rocks since the discovery of our great nation surely agree with Jon Stewart when he said, “I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely, openly wearing the symbols of their religion…. perhaps around their necks? And maybe — dare I dream it? — maybe one day there can be an openly Christian President. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively."
Perhaps it’s not due to oppression, but rather to please our Christian founding fathers, who have been dead for 200 years. Except this argument was not only formulated by the Christian Right, it's actually totally incorrect. Those in Missouri who might support this bill may be interested to know:
- No where in our Constitution is God referred to, and this was done intentionally, and in fact our Constitution does proclaim, "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
- It is forbidden, again in the Constitution, that our legislative body make laws concerning any religion.
- In the Treaty of Tripoli, signed in 1796 by John Adams and overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. Senate of our founding fathers states, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
- Almost all of our founding fathers fled England's Christianity because they were Deists, not Christians, and most followed the European Enlightenment, not the Bible. When they mention God, they're not referring to a biblical God, but rather "the god of nature."
- Our founding fathers, throughout their political careers, made several references to their favor of Church and State separation, and their choice to not subscribe to the Christian religion.
With that said, and considering this legislation is on the table, I’ve tried to do some research of my own, just to get a feel of what state sponsored religion looks like, and I came up with the following visual aids:
Looks like fun!
I honestly don’t think what Missouri has done is such a bad idea. In fact, it has inspired me to write my own state legislators, and ask for Italians to be the official nationality of the state of Maine, while making “white” the official race. Oh wait, it already is.
Missouri has decided to test our new federal theocracy even further, and build one of their own at the state level. They’ve introduced a bill that would make Christianity the official religion of the state, thus ignoring any Church/State concerns, and making other religions and those who don’t subscribe to a religion, secondary.
Well isn’t this cute.
If this passes, we’ll have the Christian version 10 Commandments, 80% of which have nothing to do with American law, posted on public buildings and in schools, which will be the perfect wall hanging backdrop during public school prayers.
Got Jewish children or one that doesn’t attend Church in the Missouri school system? Wish them luck while this new atmosphere further divides already cliquey, insecure, kids who are just learning about people’s differences and culture into a group which has one more thing to segregate themselves over. Just ask someone who already has to deal with being a member of Missouri’s de facto minority religions, before the government literally decides to make it official, and sanction their minority status via state law.
It seems that the good conservatives of Missouri don't seem to realize the separation of Church and State guarantees freedom of religion, freedom from religion, and protection from any government interference in our religion.
I’m sure the Missouri legislature has proposed this bill due to the overwhelming oppression of Christians living in Missouri, especially in the rural areas. The Christians who have been forced to hide under rocks since the discovery of our great nation surely agree with Jon Stewart when he said, “I pray that one day we may live in an America where Christians can worship freely, openly wearing the symbols of their religion…. perhaps around their necks? And maybe — dare I dream it? — maybe one day there can be an openly Christian President. Or, perhaps, 43 of them. Consecutively."
Perhaps it’s not due to oppression, but rather to please our Christian founding fathers, who have been dead for 200 years. Except this argument was not only formulated by the Christian Right, it's actually totally incorrect. Those in Missouri who might support this bill may be interested to know:
- No where in our Constitution is God referred to, and this was done intentionally, and in fact our Constitution does proclaim, "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
- It is forbidden, again in the Constitution, that our legislative body make laws concerning any religion.
- In the Treaty of Tripoli, signed in 1796 by John Adams and overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. Senate of our founding fathers states, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
- Almost all of our founding fathers fled England's Christianity because they were Deists, not Christians, and most followed the European Enlightenment, not the Bible. When they mention God, they're not referring to a biblical God, but rather "the god of nature."
- Our founding fathers, throughout their political careers, made several references to their favor of Church and State separation, and their choice to not subscribe to the Christian religion.
With that said, and considering this legislation is on the table, I’ve tried to do some research of my own, just to get a feel of what state sponsored religion looks like, and I came up with the following visual aids:
Looks like fun!
I honestly don’t think what Missouri has done is such a bad idea. In fact, it has inspired me to write my own state legislators, and ask for Italians to be the official nationality of the state of Maine, while making “white” the official race. Oh wait, it already is.
posted by Jeremy at 12:43 PM
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