|
celticlord2112 -> RE: Bishops Vow to Confront Obama Administration Over Abortion (11/15/2008 8:41:21 AM)
|
quote:
Article VI and Ammendment I.
Article VI:
quote:
All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwith-standing.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Amendment I:
quote:
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
These are the statements of the Constitution touching on religion. There is no mention at all about a "separation of church and state".
The phrase "separation of church and state" dates to an 1803 letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, wherein he referenced the First Amendment as creating a "wall of separation" between church and state.
The United States Supreme Court first referenced Jefferson's letter in Reynolds v. United States (98 U.S. 145), and thus the concept acquired force of legal precedent, and was reinforced in McCollum v. Board of Education (333 U.S. 203) and other cases.
However, Thomas Jefferson's original letter to the Danbury Baptists never describes the nature of said "wall of separation", merely that it is the consequence of the First Amendment. Specifically, Thomas Jefferson said thus:
quote:
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions -- I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and 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 man to all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."
However, even Jefferson's sparse description of said "wall" is in the direction of government ordinance as it applies to opinions and beliefs--in particular the religious beliefs of individual men. The preceding sentence, ending with the statement "...that the legislative powers of the government reach acts only, and not opinions" definitively establishes that context.
Thus, even in interpretation, the Constitution does not mandate a "separation of Church and State," but mandates that government not stray from the civic sphere into the religious sphere. In no part of the Constitution is any church placed under similar restriction.
This is reiterated in the last part of the First Amendment: "...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
One may, in good conscience, disagree with the stance of the bishops referenced in the OP. I would hope that, in good conscience, all who disagree exercise their rights fully, and in principled opposition to the bishops' stance, by bringing countervailing pressure to the Oval Office.
One may not, in any conscience, disagree with the right of the bishops to take their stance, or to exercise their rights as guaranteed by the Constitution, to bring their position to the attention of the government.
|
|
|
|
