The Establishment Clause

Will Cameron
The Paw Print

A little over two hundred years ago Thomas Jefferson and company were hacking out the documents that would help shape this fine land into the nation that it is today.  It is well recorded that the founding fathers of the United States may not have been role models for modern times, but as long as we continue to use their ideas as the cornerstone of our government we are admitting that they got most things right.
While discussing the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, introduced by James Madison, Jefferson and others, referred to “a wall of separation between church and state.”  This eventually became a part of the First Amendment: “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 the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
So what does it mean when politicians such as Michele Bachmann speak of religion as the driving force in their life?  One part of the amendment supports their rights to say these things, but another part states that these views have little or no place in politics.  Bachmann claims that God himself told her to run for office, a ruse that seems to be gaining popularity.  How many horses does He have in the race?  She does not support same sex marriage for religious reasons (and because it would cause homosexuality to run rampant through our elementary schools), and recently left a Lutheran sect that believes that the Pope is the Antichrist.
Are these things even relevant to a presidential campaign?  Like it or not today’s media will cover just about anything, and many of today’s candidates can be counted on to live up to degenerate expectations.  Perhaps idiots and zealots are just such tempting targets that the important issues are left by the wayside.  Maybe this is necessary to weed out low-end candidates.
At what point does church genuinely interfere with state?  If religion effects policy decisions (as I believe it does and has for years) the “wall of separation between church and state” does not exist.  The important thing is that the people making these decisions do so with the greater interest of our county in mind, not just their personal beliefs.  Religious fanaticism has no place in the White House.