Some churches and religious groups complain about separation of church and state when they want to force their views into the public sphere like schools and government. However when these groups want to discriminate they become the biggest fans of the wall between church and state. They shouldn’t have it both ways.
A teacher at a church school in Redford Township, Michigan was fired when the school board wouldn’t allow her to return to work after a long medical leave.
The good news is that the New York state legislature finally approved a law that will allow same sex marriage. The bad news is that in order for this great thing to happen, changes in the law will allow religious sects AND the non-church businesses they operate to discriminate against gays without any legal repercussions. In the zeal to get these new rights for the LGBT community, did proponents give away the farm?
From the NY Times:
Being this is Flag Day, I wanted to, once again, point out that the words to the Pledge of Allegiance didn’t include God before 1954. One proof is this 1939 Porky Pig cartoon reciting the Pledge and God is no where to be found. The “Red Scare” of the 1950’s led to the addition of “Under God” to the pledge. Wish we go back to the original version as it is more inclusive.
Ralph Reed former head of the right wing Christian Coalition, which continually violated federal election and tax laws during his leadership, is back with a new organization trying to link the religious right and the Republican party. The group called “Faith and Freedom Coalition” is holding a conference this weekend in Washington DC. This shows once again that religious right criminals never have to pay for their crimes.
It’s really hard for some religious believers to understand why the separation of church and state is really important. In an effort to advance the cause in support of strong separation I have come up with a good analogy to explain it. I call it “The Sports Analogy”.
Recent court decisions involving church and state have not been ruled in the non-believer’s favor. The reasoning used by the judges follow the thinking shown in the recent decision concerning the National Day of Prayer law:
