According to this article, the organization called Openly Secular (www.openlysecular.org) hopes to persuade eight states to remove provisions from their State Constitutions that forbid non-believers from holding state office. All the states are southern states, except for Maryland. The laws are not enforced. Thanks to Howard Bashman for the link.
MD is a southern State — due to being south of the old Mason-Dixon line (south border of PA).
Sue for damages – 8 more court cases about the 1st and 14th Amdts.
Don’t even know why this group is even attempting to have these provisions removed from the states which still have them. The only rationale could be a continued effort by the atheist groups to remove all forms of God (and organized religion)and promote secularism in those states which seems to be the last holdouts to the belief in a Deity.
These secular humanists (I’ll not label them what they really are) will not be content until the words “God” or “Jesus” becomes “hate” words, and fines – if not prison sentences will follow – sending a message to a terrified and brainwashed 2nd generation of millennials, not to dare let such words “slip” in their conversation.
When we used to stand in class the 1st thing every morning in grade school as a young boy and recite the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, no one could have convinced me the day would come before I died that such would be prohibited.
WWIII will be fought over the right to recognize God, but I’ve already read the last chapter of the Greatest History Book of all time, and I know how it all turns out.
AI –
Please enumerate what other rights you would argue should be taken away from atheistic American citizens.
Among the events producing the religion language in the 1st Amdt were —
The mass killings in the Crusades and the horrific Thirty Years War (1618-1649) — during which time period a number of Brit colonies in America got formed — i.e. some by folks escaping the war stuff in Europe),
the various Inquisitions (Spanish, French, Italian) killing and torturing lots of folks,
the Brit monarch also being the head of the official Anglican Church — with all sorts of pro-Protestant stuff and anti-Catholic and Jewish stuff.
Such church was often called the *Establishment* — the established church in England.
Thus the special status of *religion* in the 1st Amdt. —
NO public support for any religion.
NO public attacks on any religion — i.e. mental parts – Sorry – NO human sacrifices allowed in any religion.
i.e. NO pro or con religion stuff by governments in the USA.
Legal history is generally NOT taught – unless one is a student in a law school.
Result – Mass ignorance where the USA Const and Amdts 1-10 came from.
Baronscarpia:
I don’t want to take any rights away from atheistic believers. Where did you get such an idea? The 1st Amendment gives them the right NOT to believe just as I have the right to believe.
However, there may be so-called atheists today. But I guarantee you, the moment they take their last breath on earth, and their spirit awakes in Hell, they will no longer be an atheist.
Thank God we all have a choice. We can’t blame anyone but ourselves as to where we spend eternity!
AI –
Where? Well, from you. Holding public office is certainly a civil right. Yet you question why an atheist (or any other enlightened person who cherishes freedom, for that matter) would want to see language that denies that civil right, based on religious beliefs, removed from a state constitution.
By the way, atheists such as myself have no quarrel with your children praying in public schools. In fact, any child can choose to pray all day long while in school. Pray pray pray pray and pray some more. The issue, as you well know, is school-organized prayer, and that you can’t have. And frankly I’m surprised any religious person would trust any school or teacher to organize prayer in a manner which is consistent with their own beliefs. How would you feel, for example, if your local school superintendent turned out to be a Muslim and decreed that the school organized prayer should be conducted consistent with Muslim practices, and prayer mats were distributed to the students?
I’m just spit-balling here, but I’m guessing not so good.
You see, while many decry the secularization of government, what they really want is government to act as an agent to amplify their own beliefs. They want schools to force organized school prayer, as long as it’s prayer that’s consistent with their own beliefs. They oppose same-sex marriage, a civil contract and civil right, because their religion tells them it’s wrong. No one has ever walked into a church, as far as I know, to tell a pastor he can or can’t marry two people because the marriage would violate their own beliefs. Every Christmas Bill O’Reilly and others bellyache that municipalities (rightly) refuse to display creches and bemoan a bogus “war on Christianity), and yet – who’s preventing any Christian from constructing a creche on their own property?
Some Christians ask “what’s wrong with a display in front of Town Hall.” We ask “Why do you NEED our government to promote your religion, however ‘innocently’?”
I respect your right as a Christian to practice your religion in any way you wish, as long as you don’t trample anyone else’s rights in doing so. Don’t want to marry two men? That’s fine with me. Religions have the right to define marriage in any way they choose. Marry three men, two women and a goat, for all I care. But don’t tell the rest of us we can’t give those two men equal rights through a civil contract which is also called “marriage.”
Don’t want to fund the purchase of birth control devices based on religious beliefs? Fine. Don’t. Let your church employees figure out how to get them. But if you happen to run a hospital, and you want to run it consistent with your particular religious beliefs, be ready to give up all the government assistance that helps your institution stay in business.
You said above that you would not “label” atheists or secular humanists for “what they really are.” You should have the courage of your convictions and speak your mind. But let me suggest a label you might consider. An atheist is a person who believes in only one fewer god than you do. There are lots of “gods” out there right now, and even the “history” book you read tells us that there were other gods around a few millennia ago. So what you really ought to be worried about is not the secularization of government, but the infiltration of people into government who are just as religious as you, but don’t hold the same religious beliefs as you. And you ought to be THANKING the atheists and secular humanists who fight the fight to keep government and religion separate – on your behalf as well as their own – rather than demonizing us.
In short, we’re not out to get you. Believe what you want to believe. Just remember that your right to believe what you want to believe is protected by what Jefferson called the “wall,” and any brick taken out of that wall weakens that protection. You might be very disappointed in what life would be like in this country without that wall.