|
Photo
by Edwin Kagin |
Fundamentally
Aware Bringing
America’s Own Religious Extremism to the Forefront |
|
May 2, 2003, 2003 |
Volume 1, Number 6 |
|
Only
28 autographed
copies left. Order
yours today! “A
blockbuster exposé
of the activities of the Religious
Right,” says JOHN SHELBY SPONG best-selling author of Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism
Click
image for details. “I
have just read this brilliant book from start to finish, almost
without a break, and I am stunned and horrified by what I have
learned,”
says RICHARD DAWKINS author of Unweaving
the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder Write
your reader review of The
Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in at
Amazon.com and
|
From
the publisher
Welcome to issue 6 of Fundamentally Aware. If you’re not yet a subscriber to my complimentary newsletter, be sure to sign up. You’ll find details in the lower left column. Republican Rep. Ernest Istook is on a dangerous mission—to eradicate our Constitutional freedoms provided by the First Amendment. Discover his latest, a Pledge and Prayer Amendment that would render the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise clauses meaningless.
Also read an excerpt on the Christian Right’s attack
on the First Amendment and what it is they find
particularly threatening. As always, please feel free to share your comments with me. Kimberly Blaker Contents 1. The Purgation of the First Amendment 2. Politically Incorrect 3. Pledge and Prayer Amendment Threatens Religious Freedom 4. The First Amendment Under Attack The
Purgation of the First Amendment The
following excerpt is written by John Suarez,
from his chapter “The Path to Theocracy – the Purgation of
the First Amendment in The
Fundamentals of Extremism: the Christian Right in
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 of the
right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the government for a redress of
grievances.[i] The first sixteen words of the First Amendment, ordinary and commonplace, address the relationship between government and religion. This would be a seemingly hopeless task for even hundreds, nay, thousands, of words. Yet, the last two centuries have revealed the sociopolitical experiment, embodied in those bitterly hammered out and ultimately well-chosen words, has been nothing short of unique and revolutionary. Nonetheless, so few words cannot anticipate or cope with the inevitable complex situations that will arise. And so, different interpretations have blossomed and will continue to do so indefinitely. True “separationists,” those favoring separation of church and state, in contrast to “accommodationists,” find themselves frequently fighting uphill. Separationists rely on the recorded deliberations and decisions of the Founding Fathers and subsequent clarifications from the United States Supreme Court, when available. Such efforts are necessary to convince the rest of Americans as to the essence of the concept and the wisdom of keeping government and religion separate. bliterateirst
Amendment and thef the First Amendment and the Christian Right
attempts to dismantle it Most wars, conquests, and bloodsheds throughout human history have featured a strong religious element. . . . The
opening of the twenty-first century has been just as foreboding. The
unimaginable, well-orchestrated events of It is against such a background that the wisdom and power of the First Amendment can best be appreciated. This basic concept of the Founding Fathers has occasionally been clarified and amplified by the courts. But it has single-handedly kept our society over the past 200 years from plunging into the bottomless pit of religious war. This has been far from easy, not surprisingly. Our society serves as home to the world’s largest number of religions, large and small, well recognized and hardly known. Some sociologists have even credited the First Amendment with the fact the United States is a more religious country than any of its western counterparts. In many countries, there exist various levels of government subsidization of religion. The combined enlightenment of the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, they contend, has been a better stimulus to religious activity than tax revenues. Given all of the above, it is a remarkable success story by any political standard. So, why is there discontent, and what is causing the attempts to revise or totally dismantle the First Amendment? The dissatisfaction stems directly from the success of the First Amendment. It has served as a catalyst for the creation of a society with true religious freedom and harmony in the context of religious pluralism. At the same time, the rights of those who profess the absence of religious belief have not been overlooked. But, there are those in our midst unwilling to coexist and tolerate such differences. Their ideology demands their belief system be paramount and exclusive of others. They would like their particular brand of religion to permeate all aspects of private and public life. They are overtly threatened by the availability and circulation of alternatives. Most importantly, the First Amendment, they are painfully aware, constitutes the most powerful remedy against the establishment of a theocracy. Thus,
we see many efforts, like those of Republican Representative Ernest
Istook of Read
more on the history and historical interpretations of the First
Amendment and Christian Right attempts to obliterate it in The
Fundamentals of Extremism: the Christian Right in America. |
|
Politically
Incorrect “The
‘wall of separation between church and state’ is a metaphor based
on bad history, a metaphor that has proved useless as a guide to
judging. It should be frankly and explicitly abandoned.” Justice
William H. Rehnquist in Wallace v. Jaffree,105
|
|
|
Click
image Fundamentally
Aware Published
by Kimberly
Blaker Editor/coauthor The
Fundamentals of Extremism: the Christian Right in To
subscribe: Send
your name and email address to:
Notice
of confidentiality.
Your
name, email address, and contact information
will not be sold or disclosed to anyone. It will be used
strictly for purposes of distributing the Fundamentally Aware
newsletter. You will not receive any other email from New Boston
Books, Inc. To
Unsubscribe: Send
your name and email address with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line
to: |
Pledge
and Prayer Amendment Threatens Religious Freedom Republican
Rep. Ernest Istook, known for his failed Religious Freedom Amendment (RFA)
and other sim Istook’s ongoing pursuit of dangerous amendments under the guise of religious freedom reveals his lack of regard for religious freedom in its truest sense. Deceiving language, as always, is used to lure an uninformed populace into favoring his proposed amendment. The
wording is as follows: “To secure the people's right to acknowledge
God according to the dictates of conscience: The people retain the
right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, and
traditions on public property, including schools. The But our Bill of Rights already contains a religious freedom amendment—the First—which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. . .” Yet this doesn’t satisfy the Christian Right because the First Amendment protects the freedom of all Americans, while providing a wall between church and state. What the religious right wants is the freedom to proselytize in public schools and all government arenas—and it wants to use our tax dollars in doing so. It favors conservative-Christian religious freedom, not the freedom to believe and practice as each American chooses. At first glance, the proposed amendment appears harmless, but when dissected, serious flaws are uncovered. The first line, “To secure the people’s right to acknowledge God according to the dictates of conscience:…” (identical to the wording in the failed RFA) doesn’t allow for the freedom not to acknowledge God or to acknowledge many Gods, Buddha, or any other divine figure. By specifically using the term God, rather than religion as the First Amendment does, it creates a very illusive and different meaning. The next phrase, “The people retain the right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions on public property, including schools,” again, is a near-duplication of the wording of the RFA. But, the First Amendment already allows children to pray silently in the classroom and at lunch-time and even to form prayer groups before and after school on school grounds.
We also already have the freedom to pray silently at government meetings and in courtrooms; to use public schools, parks, and other facilities for religious gatherings; and to practice religion in our homes and churches. But the proposed Amendment would allow students and even administrators and teachers to invoke prayer and Bible readings in the classroom and to proselytize. The one part of this proposal that suggests protection for others, “The United States and the States shall not establish any official religion nor require any person to join in prayer or religious activity …” is already a protection under the First Amendment. But, the particular wording of the rest of the proposed Amendment, as described, would render this part meaningless. The fact that government shall not “establish” or “require” religious activity wouldn’t prevent minority students from feeling compelled when classmates or teachers are invoking or participating in classroom prayer. Would a child choose not to participate in a religious ritual, he or she would likely be ostracized, as has historically been the case when religion and prayer enter the public classroom. Particularly revealing of the intent of this amendment is that the right to post the Ten Commandments in public schools and other public facilities is one its stated purposes. Not only has Istook acknowledged this, but it’s included as part of the joint resolution. The
Pledge and Prayer Amendment, if ratified, would break down the wall
between church and state, destroying religious freedom.
Given the atmosphere since 9-11, our current war on Kimberly
Blaker is editor and coauthor of The
Fundamentals of Extremism: the Christian Right in The
First Amendment Under Attack Conservative
Christian views on the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and
Establishment Clauses shed light on the society they desire to create;
one where the freedom to exercise sectarian beliefs comes at the
expense of all others. John
Yeats, editor of the Baptist
Messenger shares his perspective and desire to take his beliefs
“to the streets” and even “the
capital buildings.” http://www.bpnews.org/bpfeature.asp?ID=920
Proposed
prayer amendments to our Constitution aren’t a new phenomenon. For
example, here’s an argument against the 1982 version. http://www.pcusa.org/social/prayer.htm
In
1998, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism issued an action
alert on Istook’s Religious Freedom Amendment that was nearly
identical to his latest Pledge and Prayer Amendment.
In addition to background on the former proposed amendment, the
RAC offers talking points that would be applicable to the recently
introduced Pledge and Prayer Amendment.
http://www.rac.org/take/istook.html
|
ilar
radical proposals, is back at it.