The Seperation of Church and State

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There seems to be another movement arising concerning the separation of church and state.
We have a high level government official visiting Sarasota in the next
few weeks to enlighten us. I remember this movement surfacing 8 years
ago. We had just moved to Sarasota
and it was about a week after the 2000 elections. My wife and I decided
to go, thinking it would be a good way to meet people in our
neighborhood and get politically involved in a nonpartisan issue at the
same time.

As the meeting got under way, a crowd of about 50 people had gathered.
I thought the speaker did a great job of presenting the case for
separation of church and state. Our founding fathers
certainly didn’t want a state church,and obviously most people today
don’t want it for all the same reasons the founders wrote about during
the founding of our country.

As I stated earlier, this was right after the 2000 election and the”open minded” hate Bush crowd
was just gaining momentum. It became real obvious from the start that
this meeting was more about hating Bush than about the separation of
church and state. To them it was not a bipartisan issue. It was clear
from the start , that as a conservative,I couldn’t possibly agree with
them, I didn’t really have a right to an opinion, and I sure didn’t
have a right to express it. I agreed with them on most issues, but to
this day they will never know that because of their hatred.

Anyway that is in the past. It is what it is. The more important issue
is what the separation of church and state means. Basically it means
that we will have no state sponsored church, such as the Church of
England, or that our government won’t be run by a religious fanatic as
happens in some countries. This is all well and good, and is what it
should be.

We, in America have freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. We
are free to practice whatever spiritual beliefs we may have. As we grow
and change our beliefs may change and we are free to pursue those
beliefs and discover how they fit into what we already believe. It is
every one’s right to practice their spiritual beliefs or lack of them,
as long as they don’t infringe on some one else beliefs. I was taught
that if some one’s beliefs are different than mine, to sit quietly and
respect their beliefs,thereby giving them the same respect and courtesy
I would expect.

Because of political correctness
many of our common sense principles have gone out the window. It is now
OK to shout four letter obscenities in school but our children aren’t
allowed to utter the word GOD. Prayer isn’t allowed in school , but it
is OK for teachers in Washington State to have sex with their students
provided the student is over 18, if the student is a minor they have to
bring a note from their parents.(just kidding.) It is permissible and
acceptable for a minister to shout G-D America from the pulpit.

The list goes on and on, I agree there should be a separation of church
and state, however that doesn’t mean that a generic prayer can’t be
given in a public setting, that doesn’t mean that a government official
can’t express a belief in God. Our founding fathers all had a belief in
a higher power and God help us if our elected officials ever become
non-believers. They need all the help they can get to solve the
problems of the day.

In today’s world, we have enough separation of church and state, what we really need is to abolish separation of God and state.

Written by Gary Wonning

Take your mind off the troubles of today, think of a vacation

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