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'Scripture is very clear': New House Speaker tells Congress God has 'ordained' them
(www.alternet.org)
this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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None of that says that church and state must be separate, just that there can be no religious test. There's nothing in there barring him from saying "I think God blesses the people here"
In fact, to really be edgy, that also doesn't prevent the government from say donating $10B each year to some Christian church.
To your second point, I never suggested that the Constitution says we should base our laws around the Bible.
My only point is the oft quoted Separation of church and state is only an idea from the Jefferson papers. If you want to make sure church and state remain separate, and the new speaker doesn't start using federal funds for his church, perhaps it's time to actually put separation into the Constitution?
If no qualifying religious measure can be used to install a person into office, it stands to reason that religious belief shouldn't come into play.
I would hope our (the US') political system would be aware enough that writing private funding into any religious system would be seen as favoritism and the remaining belief systems would be righteously offended at the lack of consideration, or perhaps even the outright rejection of our beliefs.
This nation was built on immigrants (and the blood of natives, but that isn't what we are discussing) from every walk of life, every religious circle. To disregard others in favor of your own belief SHOULD be political suicide. These elected officials, after all, supposed to be elected to help with the concerns of the WHOLE populous, after all, not just a specific subset.
Playing religious favoritism has a high potential to try to convert the country into a religious state, as funding continues to be funneled into these specific religions, and in turn the churches funnel money back into the candidates as lobbying.
Coming to that point, does anyone who wants to to fund the church with government money which would be better used to take homeless off the streets, feed homeless children, or making people's lives in general, don't have the people's, or even God's best interests at heart?
Do they tithe their first ten percent, as the Bible says? Surely it would be in their tax records as charitable donations? If not, that would make me even more suspect of their intentions.