The Maverick Conservative

Mine eyes have seen the coming of the Glory of the Lord".  Have I gone theistic (readers of this blog know I am an agnostic).  No.  I am simply exposing the LIES of those people who say the "founders" of this country (Constitution) were establishing a SECULAR state, where religion had no place in public life.  That is, objectively, a LIE.

The Constitution set up a LIMITED GOVERNMENT.  The Federal Govnernment was not supposed to have powers not specifically granted to it.  That meant that the Federal Government supposedly had NO POWER to affect freedom of speech, or to interfere with freedom of religion (or establish one). 

States had to ratify the Constitution.   People were afraid that the Federal Government would become a MONSTER--imposing one view on all of the states, without regard to the limitation of powers (NEVER were people in history more right).  The Constitution neither set up a "Christian nation" nor a secular "nation".  That is because we were, and are, a nation of STATES.  The states were supposed to have certain powers, and the Federal Government was supposed to have SPECIFIC powers granted to it.

Thus, the original Constitution said nothing about religion.   That is because the new Federal Government was not supposed to have any POWERS regarding religion.  Those powers were left to the states.

Because, however, people did not TRUST (rightly) the Federal Government not to grab all power into its hands, they insisted on a Bill of Rights.  The Bill of Rights specifically emphasized that the Federal Government had NO power in certain areas, and that (in the 9th and 10th Amendments) that the listing of certain restrictions did NOT mean that the Federal Government had a right to assert power everywhere else (pretty much ignored now, as the Federal Government HAS asserted power essentially everywhere else:  WHERE is the Federal Government given the power to "regulate guns", even if the Second Amendment did not exist?).  The First Amendment prevented the Federal Government from either establishing a national religiion or interfering with the freedom of religion.  It did NOT apply to the states at all.

In other words, in 1841 Pennsylvania could have a STATE RELIGION (if it so chose), without violating the Constitution.  Forget about "prayer in the public schools".   You would have been laughed atif you asserted that schools could not ALLOW prayer in the public schools.

It is simply a LIE to say that the Constitution was intended to keep religion out of public life.  It was simply intended (in the First Amendment) to keep the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT out of imposing national religions views, or interfering with any religion being practiced in the states.  Again, under the original Constitution, states could actually establish RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS (if they wished--many had provisions which provided for something similar to the First Amendment, but which were NEVER used to prevent such things as prayer in school).

The Civil War happened (as FDR's liberal Supreme Court would later happen). Union troops went into battle singing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (no more religious song was ever written--see heading and first paragraph). It might be said that we OWE our present status as a united nation to RELIGION (certainlly, religious people were heavily behind the anti-slaverery movement). That explains why "John Brown's Body" was transformed into the "Battle Hymn of the Republic).

The South lost (to troops singing about religion). The 14th Amendment resulted. In the 1930's the ROOSEVELT SUPREME COURT first held that the 14th Amendment applied the First Amendment to the states. It was not until circa 1962 that prayer in the public schools was prohibited basesd on a BOGUS principle of "separation of church and staet".

Thus, what was almost fought as a RELIGIOUS war ended up with an Amendment (in 1866 or so) that would eventually be used to try to ELIMINATE RELIGION from all public life: one of history's ironies.

One of the other ironies in all of this is that in 1962 (or so), Hollywood made "Inherit the Wind", about the "monkedy trial"--circa 1925--concerning a teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of a state law.  Spencer Tracy strongly cross-examined the primary advocate/defender of that law something like this:  "How would you feel if the state PROHIBITED a teacher from talkiing abut the BIBLE in school."

The irony, of course, is that--AT ABOUTG THE VERY SAME TIME AS "INHERIT THE WIND"--the Supreme Court was in the process of leaving the wording and meaning of the Constitution behind, to IMPOSE a JUDGE-MADE "rule" of "separation of church and state" which had never existed before.  As people heard Spencer Tracy speak those words in movie theatres, menation of the BIBLE was about to be eliminated from the public schools.

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