YAY for ACTUAL Separation of Church and State at Last!!!!!!

[queerbychoice]

I LOVE CALIFORNIA!!!!!

The author of the article should also have noted that the words "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency were also added during the Cold War (although they were used intermittently on a few coins in the Civil War too).

And most hilariously:

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., was one of many lawmakers who immediately reacted in anger and shock to the ruling.
"Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. This is the worst kind of political correctness run amok," Bond said. "What's next? Will the courts now strip 'so help me God' from the pledge taken by new presidents?"

The Founding Fathers, of all people for him to invoke - they were spinning in their graves when the words "under God" and "In God We Trust" were added in the first place. And the Presidential Oath of Office? The Constitution provides the words for the Presidential Oath of Office verbatim, as the Founding Parental Units intended. It reads:

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' [U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1]

Which reminds me, while we're on the topic, I think it was who recently reminded me of the Separation of State and Church Quiz from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Go take it.

Comments

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

I always abstained because I was an angry kindergarten atheist activist. My mother's an agnostic who couldn't have cared less.

I have traumatic memories of a third grade field trip - the class was having a picnic under some trees and just discussing things freely without teacher intervention, and it morphed into a spontaneous "Raise your hands if you . . ." session and suddenly some kid said, jokingly, in an of-course-everyone's-going-to-raise-their-hands-for-this-one tone of voice, "Raise your hands if you believe in God." Everybody raised their hands except me, and they all looked around, and some well-intentioned kid told me, "Hey Cindy, raise your hand." No, I said. Her: "No, you didn't hear, they said raise your hand if you believe in God." She reached out and helpfully tried to physically raise my hand for me. No, I said. Her: "But you believe in God, right? So raise your hand!"

No. No. No. No.

They were all staring at me. For weeks afterward I could swear they were all walking a little further away from me in the hallways and giving me funny looks. I think a lot of the third graders hadn't known they'd ever even met an atheist before. My friends kept asking me questions and wanting to have long talks about it. "But don't you feel God's presence at all? Don't you ever hear him talking to you? You must have sensed him lots of times, I always do!"

I looked a friend who said that to me in the eye once and asked, "You mean you hallucinate? Really?"

[ksuzy.livejournal.com]

That happens to my son a lot... he says he does not believe in God, and all the kids in his class try to tell him why he should, and tell him he's going to go to hell, etc. and he comes home angry that they won't just leave him alone about it! (But this is the Bible belt). Where did you grow up?

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

Right here in Sacramento, alas. The adults around here are occasionally slightly more educated than the third-graders, though.

Re:

[ksuzy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I idealize living in what seem like more progressive communities.... I dream of living in New York or San Francisco or something, because over 60% of people here where I live go to church every week, which is twice as much as the national percentage, and I think it would be so much better somewhere else... but I hear from others who have lived in these more "progressive" communities that they have similar problems. Maybe the solution is to leave the country altogether. What do you think?