Monday, May 16, 2011

Separation of Church and State?

It's a subject I've always been beaten to death over.  As logical as it may seem to many, it seems equally as silly to the other side.

After all, isn't America full of God-fearing people?  Should we ever bend to those non-godly folk?

I spent many a day getting an earful from both sides, and felt there are obvious points to be made.  Yes, America  is a "Christian nation" in the sense of population and such, and yes, obviously a place to declare itself "land of the free" doesn't include the tag "if you are Christian" soon after.

My view?

Keep religion out of my government, but only for the sole reasoning of I want governments kept out of my religion!

Look at the history of Catholicism, specifically the history of the Vatican.  Politics and political motives have always made things dicey, and nowadays I believe the separation of Church and State would be beneficial to the Mother Church (besides obvious "don't kill us please" things).  All things considered, seeing how kingdoms have used and abused the Catholic Church through various back-room workings, I can only ponder the extent of a secular government's grasp on today's Church.  I'd rather not have the Faith here in the states fondled and molested (yeah I said it) in ways too many to count.

What if we do get prayer back in schools?  Yay, but what guarantee is there that it will be fully devoted to God? You must remember, I'm not talking about Time Travel and make this all happen from the get-go, we're already knee-deep in things, and trying to bring religion into government would surely prompt that notion of "let's try something new" that would leave many of us Catholics...well....feeling screwed.

I ain't praying to Allah, but the way things are, the guy next to me can (and I can freely say I think it silly...for now, different topic later), but bigger point is I can pray to whoever I want.  Freedom of religion is a beautiful thing for us, even if it seems like bad things are allowed for other beliefs, because if religion was forced in our schools and such, there will be one politician with the bright idea to change which faith it is due to what he/she thinks the majority religion is, and who my child can pray to at school.



^Consider what I've said after that one.

Feel free to throw something here, I'm working on this blogging thing.

2 comments:

  1. Any truly religious person should be opposed to any sort of "prayer in schools" mandated by or advocated by any government. For one, it promotes a ritualistic understanding of religion that places the true meaning of any religion behind the facade of rote repetition and ritual. Second, no religious person should allow any government to determine what "form" of religion is acceptable to practice in public. Third, no religious person should accept any government granting them "their right" to practice their own religion, as it is neither the "right," the "duty," or the "place" for government to even grant that. Pursuit of one's own religious faith is a natural aspect of human existence and no government can "grant one the freedom to do so" as that freedom is something that exists perenially, and is something granted by God, whereas government and laws are human creations.

    Point being, government has no capacity to determine what religion is or should be, as religion goes far beyond the scope of politics. The way we treat religion as if it were a political question strikes me as rather silly and seems a little bit misguided, at best.

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  2. You pretty much struck it on the nose there! Granted, I do enjoy freedom of religion here, but your points as to why it would be demeaning to the faith if gov't got involved is very spot-on!

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