Speaker Johnson Just Took The Separation-of-Church-and-State Blatherers To Truthtown
It turns out that facts are, indeed, stubborn things
It’s practically an article of faith for the fire-breathing secular left that there is ‘separation of church and state’. They think they understand what that sentence means. And they are wrong.
The guy the GOP chose as their new house speaker ought to know. He’s been fighting legal cases based on constitutional law for years.
He was invited onto CNBC’s Squawk Box. He managed to pass a short Continuing Resolution to avoid the Senate shoving another omnibus down our throats… with the plan of coming back with a proper budget by January.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
But he was faced with another question. One about his faith.
Dems have been REALLY wound up by the fact that the new speaker is actually a devout Christian, rather than, well, whatever Pelosi was.
Speaker Mike Johnson was asked a question about the photos of him praying with other elected leaders after the decision.
“The separation of church and state is a misnomer,” Johnson said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“People misunderstand it,” he continued. “Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It’s not in the Constitution. And what he was explaining is they did not want the government to encroach upon the church — not that they didn’t want principles of faith to have influence on our public life. It’s exactly the opposite.” — NBCNews
It might come as a suprise to the left that he is, of course, correct. The phrase itself came up not in law, but in a private letter from Jefferson in reply to concerns raised by the Danbury Baptists. The reply was written in 1802.
The link is there for anyone who wants to read it themselves. What was the concern raised by the Baptists? They wanted assurances of their Religious liberty.
What was Jefferson’s reply? The critical phrase, often misquoted is highlighted with bold text in the following paragraph:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ʺmake no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,ʺ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
What was Jefferson saying in that paragraph? Simply: an American has a right to exercise his private faith and form of worship. The government has no authority to limit such views or religious opinions.
In this context, Jefferson appealed DIRECTLY to the First Amendment. (Notice his use of ‘thus’. The ‘wall of separation’ takes its existence from the limitation of the words that come before it… namely that legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise.) That amendment placed NO obligation on any private parties. The only limitation placed there was on the ability of the federal government to coerce a private person to adopt a certain set of beliefs or opinions.
If only the Biden administration recognized the authority of such objections, we wouldn’t have a cottage industry of feds regulating ‘misinformation’.
Before we can accept that Jefferson was himself in any way hostile to government officials showing signs of religious devotion, we will first need some way to explain this historical fact:
In fact, secular icon Jefferson, while a member of the House of Burgesses in 1774, called for a day of prayer in response to the effort of the British to close Boston Harbor after the infamous Boston Tea Party of late 1773.
The Crown issued the Boston Port Act on March 7, 1774, designed to destroy the economy of Boston and the Massachusetts Bay colony. Jefferson, in nearby Virginia, believed this dictatorial act required a response.
His response was to personally draft a resolution for a “Day of Fasting & Prayer,” to be held on June 1, the day the blockade of the harbor was scheduled to begin. The resolution was introduced on May 24 and adopted unanimously. — AFR
Y’all need to stop spinning the details. Nobody cares that he is a christian. I was raised in the church myself. However, his religious beliefs do NOT belong in government. The 1st amendment does not exist, if you legislate by religious beliefs. You have then forced EVERYONE to live by your beliefs, not their own.
Uh-huh. Right.
Look up the the history of the word antidisestablishmentarianism and get back to me.
Hey stupid there are no gods. It’s all a load of total bollocks. Stop pushing your stupid lies
An argument from silence is no argument at all.
Post actual ideas to contend with opposing views all you want, but if the best your feeble imagination can come up with is personal insults against other contributors, you will quickly find yourself screaming your inanities into the void.
Which is precisely where such childish behavior belongs.
Consider yourself warned.
Daniel.
Your ‘hey stupid’ comment isn’t posted because it was both abusive AND vapid.
I am so glad you said that. So now, if a child raping, cat juggling, atheist is in that position he can lead however his “non-faith” tells him to.
I would refer you to the John Adams quote.
But ask yourself — isn’t the so-called culture war exactly that?
Left-wing secularists have a worldview that functions precisely the same way as a religion would — with Government/political power elevated beyond its natural role to take on redefined morality as well — and aggressively refashioning the moral world according to their own moral grid?
Don’t secular Maoist China, the USSR, and 1940s Germany fail in almost exactly the same way that Irn’s theocracy does? Coercive political power and persuasive moral certainty are poured into a single vehicle that cannot be opposed or criticized.
Our system, when running functionally, has them running parallel in separate spheres where each serves as a check on the other’s more toxic traits.
Are you really surprised that the secular left embraced Big Tech censorship of their critics re COVID, trans issues and all the rest?
They assumed their superior morality justified and compelled the silencing of heretics.
Sorry Benjy but there is NO such thing as separation of church and state. The Constitution was ratified in 1787, the very first mention of this lie was in a letter from Jefferson to his Baptist detractors, and that was 15 freaking years after the Constitution was ratified. Now once it was ratified and made law of the land the ONLY way to change it is by a constitutional amendment, not a simple letter. And at NO time has there ever been such an amendment. And dont start with the SCOTUS being able to “interpret” anything lie, that authority does not and never has existed in Article 3 (powers of the judiciary) and they cannot just give themselves that authority without a constitutional amendment saying so. So your whole post is your OPINION and nothing more.
The left is imposing the religion of LGBTQ and saitinisem on us using government authority, it’s time to fight back with Gods authority. tasa.americanstatenationals.org
“For the preservation of peace and harmony among men it is not sufficient that the compulsion of the law prevents them from harming each other. They must acknowledge the rights of others of their own free will and seek to live in peace with them. It is the ethical virtues of the individual which make it possible for society to be well-ordered.” Julius Guttmann
Related.
We have no Government armed with Power capable of contending with human Passions unbridled by <, Start deletion,[. . .], End,> morality and Religion. Avarice, Ambition <, Start deletion,and, End,> Revenge or Galantry, would break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other (from a Founders archives gov page)
From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia, 11 October 1798
“But”, “if” a persons religious views/religion requires him/her/they to kill others who don’t believe the same, or practice the same religion, etc., then that religion should be scrutinized and should not be allowed to continue to be practiced in a country that wants peace among it’s citizens.
The very foundation of this Constitutional Republic (challenge to look up thanks to Wes Walker) was in large part due to England’s force to Worship as the King saw fit. As the Founders of this Country were Protestant; Catholic; Presbyterian; Agnostic; Atheist; Druid and yes Witches among others. The Witches didn’t fair so well, but another conversation. Each had a desire to Worship their way without being told how or how not to. Our Government is doing this very thing right now. I am a Christian and believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God! I get attacked and insulted but as I understand God’s Word, I am to expect that. If you want to be LBGTQ+ and whatever else will be added then that is your right as an American, but I also have the right to disagree. If we are in a situation where you’re in jeopardy, my hand will be out to help. My only hope is that the same hand will be offered. After, we can discuss our beliefs or not, either way, it’s not mine to judge. A lot of our fighting seems to be over our Faith and Race, which is unfortunate! Until we focus on what is wrong with this Country and find a way to work together, we WILL fail. Believe how you believe as will I, and if you need anything, ask and I will try my best to help. Not sorry!
I cannt concieve how one can say that there is no God, or as I like to think of it a higher intellingence than us, for if one looks around one can see intellingences from the virus, through single celled beings, insects, monkies and finally us, who alone have the knowlege of good and evil. It is inconcivable that the universe just came into being without some higher intellignce directing it’s creation. I know alot of God denyers say that if there were a God that he would not allow all the evil in this world and thus there is no God or higher inteligence. I think of it this way, we are his children and have lessons to learn prior to our being perfected, this world is but a classroom in which we learn lessons, through at times hard experience. We all have free agency and can do either good or evil, he has given us the ten commands and conscience and will be judged in the end and recieve our reward or punishment which we have earned. We all have our shot at mortally and have our set number of years on this planet.