I think its obvious that the Christian Right is a very large and influential part of the Republican party, and Guiliani will need their support in order to get the nomination. When Republican Hindus determine Presidential candidates, we will change the topic name.
No, it is both. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" = freedom from religion "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" = freedom of religion
cmon wake up. christians are the overwhelming majority in this country. if raelians were a huge voting force, i would be talking about them. depends on if the christian ideals are normal and universal principles, or specifically christian BS. christians should not want to use the government to enact their values, they should see the danger in that. they should want to keep the government as separate as possible from their religions. they shouldnt want the government managing a holy thing like marriage. woefully incorrect. listen to nolimit. if this was an overwhelmingly muslim country imagine how you would feel about the muslims pushing their agenda. that is EXACTLY how i feel about the christian agenda.
Three comments: 1. I haven't made a single post in this discusssion 2. The thread title is about the Christan vote 3. Duhhhh?
The establishment clause is about creating a national religion and protecting religions from governmental influence, not freedom from religion. Back to Jefferson: "I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808. ME 11:428
If this was a Muslim state, we might not be able to have this discussion: Jefferson again: "The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind." --Thomas Jefferson to Moses Robinson, 1801. ME 10:237
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!
I do play fair: "The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right." --Thomas Jefferson: Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779. ME 2:301, Papers 2:546
translation: "of all the horrible nonsense, there is one particular brand of nonsense which, when you take away some of the nonsense, is less hostile to reason than the other brands of horrible nonsense" what is your point? christians are less insane than muslims? ok, i will buy that, in most (definitely not all) cases. again, we are dealing with some seriously low standards here. what you are saying is like if i said that corky from life goes on is the smartest retard among all the retards. so lets make him king of the world! why not just forget retards altogether? and again, the government is explicitly supposed to give us freedom from religion, this is incredibly clear to anyone who is fair-minded.
Unless the mandate is from a Christian populous? Freedom from a National Religion does not free one from the influence of religion, as much as I am not free from the influence of your lack of one. That is what should be incredibly clear to anyone fair minded. This has become much less than a discussion about political participation.
