Separation of Church and State

      There was a reason our early founders believed in the Separation of Church and State, and why it was necessary to keep them apart. The most famous use of the metaphor was by Thomas Jefferson in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. In it, Jefferson declared that "when the American people adopted the establishment clause, they built a wall of separation between the church and state.” "Both Jefferson and fellow Virginian James Madison felt that state support for a particular religion or for any religion was improper. They argued that compelling citizens to support through taxation a faith they did not follow violated their natural right to religious liberty, …As presidents, though, both Jefferson and Madison could be accused of mixing religion and government. Madison issued proclamations of religious fasting and thanksgivings while Jefferson signed treaties that sent religious ministers to the Native Americans. And from its inception, the Supreme Court has opened each of its sessions with the cry, God save the United States and this honorable court. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the Court held that the establishment clause is one of the liberties protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, making it applicable to state laws and local ordinances. Since then, the Court has attempted to discern the precise nature of the separation of church and state.”…and finally almost 150 years later, "In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the Court established a three-pronged test for laws dealing with religious establishment. To be constitutional a statute must have “a secular legislative purpose,” it must have principal effects that neither advance nor inhibit religion, and it must not foster “an excessive government entanglement with religion.” as quoted from, "Establishment Clause (Separation of Church and State) in the First Amendment Encyclopedia article written By Hana M. Ryman and J. Mark Alcorn. Because they cannot bring GOD in person or entity to argue on their behalf, factions of Christianity have continually sought to usurp this constitutional stature, to have more influence and power in matters of state which are clearly defined as Secular, yet full well knowing this, they constantly bombard the halls of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Presidency, to change the way we govern. The encroachment of religion into government, was against the wishes of our founding fathers in this nation and our constitution, began just before the turn of the 20th century, with the first efforts of Christian politics to patriotize our youths using religious dogma. The Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America was originally a public relations stunt done to promote the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the shores of the New World in 1492. An ordained Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy who found work in the promotions department of "Youth's Companion" magazine, was given the chore of constructing a program for public education to promote patriotism, to be used in conjunction with the opening ceremonies of the Columbian Exposition of 1892. Bellamy was successful in lobbying Congress to endorse a resolution supporting his new school program and enacting the Columbus Day National Holiday. A key element of this patriotism was for school children to salute the flag and recite in unison, this new loyalty pledge Bellamy had also just written, to show their fealty in support for their country. It just happened, there was felt at the time a national crisis in loyalty, due to the various sentiments that had lingered around since the tragic Civil War, that 30 years earlier had divided the nation. It was said, there were millions of school children nationwide, that recited that pledge for the first time on opening day of the Columbian Exposition. Bellamy's original Pledge to Allegiance had no religious connotations whatsoever, but this patriotizing of citizens would lay the groundwork later to assure their loyalty under sworn religious authority. With the enactment of the cold war after WWII, our current Pledge of Allegiance in the U.S. of America would be officially changed under the President Dwight Eisenhower on June 14, 1954, which also just happened to be "Flag Day" enacted by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, to add the words of "under God", and two years later he eagerly added "In God we Trust", as our official motto. This would officially recognize the entrance of Christian Conservatism into a recognized national authority and begin a quest for the ultimate Christian nation having authority over other religions, much as the Islamic State of Iran is today. Note: this is the same President that warned us about the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex but willingly turned a blind eye to over 170 covert actions the CIA took, mostly to overturn other governments like Iran's that is still a disaster today.

       Born again Christians is a recent invention that began in the late 1960's by Evangelical Christians represented then by Billy Graham, that would lead to a blind discussion I once saw between an Evangelical leader and an Imam of Islam, on a national Christian broadcast program that talked about who could go to heaven, and the Evangelist espoused, only a person who has been reborn again through Jesus Christ can go to heaven, and the incredulous look on the Imam's face haunts me even to this day. Franklin Graham the son and heir to Billy Graham, said in 2001 that "the God of Islam is not the same God" worshipped by Christians and Jews. There have been so many Evangelists in the last 70 years that have preached outright hatred and disrespect for the Islamic religion, that religion through Christianity should start to decline dramatically in the coming years, not decades, but years. When you slap someone viciously and repeatedly enough, they never forget the hurt of the sting. Extremism distorts even fundamentalism to such a point that revulsion of the former begins to take affect and disenchants people to follow such paths. Modern day Christianity, much like the days of old, only even more so, uses the authority of God to justify their extreme reasoning, which is just as blasphemous as Muslims or Jews using extremist ideas and methods for justifying the same thing. Today Evangelism in the 21st century has finally reached its highest level of deceit, with what has become a phenomenon known as the Prosperity Gospel that uses the guise of Christianity to promote personal wealth and financial success if you have faith in God. With your donations to charismatic Evangelists such as the like of Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, and the pioneer himself now deceased Oral Roberts, just to mention a few out of the dozens that have been around since the 1950's, originally your prayer would have been answered by God for no more than a couple of dollars beginning with Billy Graham, but now with a success that has morphed out of all reason with megachurches holding 10,000 or more people at a time, the prosperity pitch itself delivers donations amounting to millions each and every month. Religion is now coupling your faith in God with the amount of prosperity you will enjoy during your lifetime. These millions of donated dollars are propping up such enormous sums of individual wealth that many Evangelical pastors do not even need to have a salary, as they are the end recipients of all this wealth. Rarely does anything go to relieve the conditions of poverty or misery itself, because as a parishioner you have come to expect a good show, that only lights up your enthusiasm to do whatever it takes for you to get a piece of that prosperity pie yourself. The Evangelist has become the way, and faith in God is the means of collection.