Wow, all kinds of topics touched on here....
First of all, on topic:
I don't see why so many people are up in arms about gay marriages. If you are opposed to it...I'll say this slowly....
don't.....marry.....a....gay...person!! Whew...how hard was that?
As for "In God We Trust" thing, it was added to currency in the late 1800's (i.e. over 100 years after this country was founded) and to paper money in the 1920's IIRC.
Just like like "Under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 (56?). McCarthyism at its finest.
Unfortunately, the SCOTUS let it pass constitutional muster at the time by declaring it "ceremonial deism". Unfortunately, the fact that so many religious folks start screaming and complaining the minute it is suggested to remove gives the proof to that lie.
As for the old (and I mean real old) argument the the words, or phrase 'Seperation of Church and State" is not found in the consititution. Well, that's true, and there are lots of other things that we take for granted in our modern legal system that aren't in the consitution. You go that argument, it's a really slippery slope.
You wanna know where the phrase came from? I believe it came from Thomas Jefferson's (You remember him, right?)
Letter to the Danbury Baptists. Looking at the context of the times (it wasn't called the enlightenment for nothing) and the political climate in which the constitution of the US was written, it is clear the the framers of the constitution intended there to be a separation that prevented government interference with religion
and religious interference with government.
Remember, many of the settlers came here to escape religious persecution.
If any of you are interested in tangling with, or asking questions of, some realy knowledgable people on this topic, check out
this site.
Oh, and one other thing, don't take anyone's word on this. Do yourself a favor and do some research (real research, not listening to Faux News re-writing history) and back up some of those unfounded assertions floating around in this thread. Don't believe me either, go out and prove me wrong! Especially since most of this is off the top of my head.
Cheers,
Spitter
