‘You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?’
WORDmeister sez: This offered in its entirety. Talk about shock and awe...
O’Donnell questions separation of church, state
By BEN EVANS Associated Press Writer
“WASHINGTON (AP)—Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware is questioning whether the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from establishing religion.“In a debate at Widener University Law School, O’Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons’ position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.
“O’Donnell asked where the Constitution calls for the separation of church and state. When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?’
“The exchange Tuesday aired on radio station WDEL generated a buzz among law professors and students in the audience.”
Editor’s Note: At least she’s not a witch.
PeezPix: Fishermen’s Memorial, Trinidad, Calif.
WRITING PROF WANTED! JCOM @ USU is hiring. A search for a new tenure-track faculty member to focus on the teaching of writing. Revolutionary! See job posting at Utah State University HR or email ted.pease@usu.edu.
NEWS NOTE: 2010 Sundance film 8: The Mormon Proposition, comes to the USU campus next week with Q&A discussion with filmmaker Reed Cowan, a 1997 USU broadcast journalism alumnus. Thursday, Oct. 21, 7 p.m., Eccles Conference Center Auditorium. URL
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The real scandal (and irony) is that the State cannot be separated from Religion because the State is a Religion.
ReplyDeleteThat is, the Governance Model employed by the State embodies a set of beliefs and practices that are taken on faith just as much as any other set of beliefs and practices (including the set of beliefs and practices adopted by scientists and academics).
The reason it's not just an irony but a scandal is because the set of axiomatic beliefs (and derivative practices) adopted by the State are provably false (in a rigorous mathematical sense).
Ted, I don't know how to respond to this. Any Constitutional scholar worth his/her salt knows that the first amendment does NOT mention separation of church and state. I believe the phrase is a reference to something Thos. Jefferson wrote in one of his letters.
ReplyDeleteI think we have enough legitimate points to find fault with coming from our Republican friends without having to exaggerate in cases like this. (The contretemps also proves beyond the shadow of a doubt how ill-informed too many of our TV commentators are!)
Javan