Dark and Orwellian possibilities

Warning: This is a rant.

I have climbed up on this particular soapbox before ... and I can almost guarantee that I will again. Because this keeps happening. And it's still so wrong.

I recently had some "debates" with people who scared me.

I lean to the left on most social issues. The ladies I was conversing with were card-carrying members of the religious right. But it was not just their uber-conservative views that bothered me - Hey, some of my favorite people are Republican.

No, it was their vehement assertions about the First Amendment that scared the hell out of me.

The conversation almost inevitably goes something like this:

First, they tell me that "separation of church and state" is not in the constitution.

Guh-wha?

Then they imply that the whole concept is some nasty little agenda "made up by the ACLU" and assert the "first amendment card is over-played".

Aaaack!

Then they hit me with the topper: "The founding fathers wanted to keep the government out of religion, but they didn't mean to keep religion out of the government."

By the time they get to the "the U.S. Constitution is based on Christian values" rhetoric, I'm pretty much hyperventilating.

They are, of course, downplaying our freedom of speech and bastardizing our freedom of religion in order to argue their religious-based moral and legal superiority - to justify why one religious group should dictate the laws of the land.

Yeeeeeaaaahhhhh.

Here's the thing: I don't much care what religion you are. As long as you are not hurting anyone, I support your right to think and do and say pretty much whatever you want.

THAT is the point of the First Amendment and all of the laws that spring from it.

The idea that people think their religious doctrine should trump the Constitutional rights of individuals is, well ... downright un-American!

And, to my way of thinking, kind of obscene.

For the record, this is the First Amendment to the US Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

*sigh* Isn't it beautiful?


Okay ... back to my rant:

No, the words "separation of church and state" are not actually in the First Amendment. That phrase was coined by Thomas Jefferson in an 1802 letter to a bunch of Baptist guys in Connecticut.

But the "separation" concept defined by the first amendment is the basis for all laws in this country pertaining to freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to question our leaders.

These are arguably the most important words ever written pertaining to American government and freedom. How can any adult citizen NOT know them and understand them?!?

We need to teach our children better.

I am deeply saddened and concerned when people take these and other constitutional rights for granted.

But I am even more appalled that there are people who want to take away those rights from people who are different than they are. While they, of course, remain warmly ensconced in their protection.

You can almost see the irony dripping from the text when the religious right uses their Constitutionally guaranteed right to speech to argue that the rights of other people should be limited because of their religious beliefs.

The real irony, though, is that they are completely blind to their own hypocrisy.

The idea that these people vote scares the hell out of me.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ~ Edmund Burke