H: interesting article from Rolling Stone. There's been more talk about church and state lately, and the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constituion. What I had forgotten was that the idea of separation of church and state is not found in the Constituion, but was proposed by Jefferson in some of his letters. Pat Boone has an article today on a San Diego paper's website citing Jefferson:

Even Thomas Jefferson, whose invocation about the "separation of church and state" is cited at every opportunity by some, made clear that he was not proposing that government divorce itself from spiritual matters. As Jefferson put it in 1798, "No power over the freedom of religion is delegated to the United States by the Constitution."

Indeed, the same Thomas Jefferson, then our third president, said just four years later – "with solemn reverence" – in his famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, the purpose of the Constitution's freedom of religion clause was not to interfere with the exercise of religion but to assure Americans there would be no official, or state-sponsored church, such as the Church of England. The Constitution, he told them was clear, Congress shall "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

So there can't be a Church of America, like there is a Church of England.

I don't have too strong an opinion on this, as I think the inherent checks and balances of American culture will stop any radicals from gaining too much power.
Speaking as someone who considers himself a libertarian, I love this quote by a contributor to Samizdata, a British blog which describes itself as "A blog for people with a critically rational individualist perspective". I don't agree with using the word "ninnies" though.

The various left-wing ninnies who are running around bleating about theocracy are, in effect, hoist on their own petard. Having spent generations destroying the idea of limited government and creating an all-powerful national state, it ill becomes them to complain now that their tool is being turned to different ends. Even so, it is astonishing that virtually none of them realize that the uses to which the Republicans want to put federal power are inevitable, once you establish an all-powerful state in a country that is actually quite Christian and conservative, all told. It is sad but unsurprising that none of them are willing to attack the problem at its root by calling for limited government. No, the only solution the statists can imagine is seizing power again, themselves.

Heh.
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/28/2005 03:59:00 PM