The goal is  protect everyone’s religious rights.   The goal is not to exclude "God" from the government.   That is literally impossible because humans cannot separate their divine nature from the governments they create.  

 The  goal is to make sure everyone has the right to  relate to "The Source of All"  in any fashion he/she chooses,  including the right to deny that such a source even exists.   And the best way to do that appeared to be, and still appears to be:

To acknowledge the universal spiritual nature of man, and at the same time, keep the activities of church and state as distinct and separate as possible.

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u   Can We Separate Church from State

u   Why Are These Restrictions Necessary

u   How Do We Avoid Religious Tyranny

u   The First Amendment of the United States Constitution

u   Public Prayers 

u   Displaying the Ten Commandments on Public Property

u   Evolution Versus Six-Days of Creation

u   Links & References for the Printed Version of this Page

 Printed copies of this document are now available..

Then why are so many people concerned 
about the separation of church and state?

Because they are focused on the wrong issue and are asking the wrong question.

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What the question isn't:

        u   It's  not about the separation of church and state,

        u   It's  not about detaching our collective selves from God,

        u   It's  not about having a government that denies its connection 
               to the Divine.

To hear those proposing that the conservative version of Christianity dominate our government, you'd think, the rest of us were attempting to create  an atheist-controlled government.  That is not the case.   To completely separate church from state is quite literally impossible.   Humans cannot separate their divine nature from the governments they create.

However, if we are to live free:

1)   We must prohibit any religious factions from using the powers of
       government in their own behalf and/or at the expense of others.

2)   We must prohibit any religious factions from using  government
       property or money to promote their specific religious beliefs.

3)   We must prohibit any religious factions from using  government laws 
        to force their religious practices onto  someone else.

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The Ignored Majority:

The typical fundamentalist Christian argument is that this conflict is between two opposing sides,  Church-going conservative Christians on one side and atheists on the other side.   They completely ignore a very large group of people.

There are millions of people who believe in and live by different faiths°   altogether.   The fundamentalist Christians ignore Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, as well as Sheiks, Jains, and Native Americans.   They also ignore the millions of Americans who hold strong spiritual values°  and acknowledge a divine source, but do not participate in the worship rituals set forth by any of the major religions.

And there are millions of practicing Christians who believe in and follow the values put forth by Jesus in the Christian Bible who do not want the leaders of the ultra-conservative faction of the Christian religion interfering with the American political system.   

When church and state combine religious tyranny rules.   One has but to look at the history of the Roman Catholic Church to clearly see how criminal activity destroys freedom when a church controls the government.  The hierarchy of that organization has given us a 2000-year-long, bloody legacy of intolerance, intimidation and harassment, intentional deception,  lies of omission,  political and sexual repression,  heterosexual and homosexual hypocrisy,  religious and racial bigotry,  egocentric chauvinism, oppression of women, political tyranny and subjugation,  violence, vandalism, arson, and murder.   

Middle Eastern Examples:   One has but to look to the present political structures of the Middle Eastern countries and their political unions with the Moslem religion to know why politics and religion need to be kept apart.   The September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attack also answers that question.

Bookman Quote:   Here's the same message in a quote from Jay Bookman, Deputy Editorial Page Editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:   

"There is no case in recorded  human history, regardless of era or culture, in which religion and government have been intertwined without eventually compromising basic human freedoms."   

(Quote printed in the (Los Angeles Area) 
Daily News, Monday November 22, 2004, pg. 9)

Avoid Religious Tyranny   ...

u   OK, Then How Do We 
         Avoid Religious Tyranny?

By answering this question:  

"How do we blend church with state justly, peacefully, and harmoniously and still honor everybody's religious freedoms, including the rights of those who believe God is just another fairytale?"

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Some specific questions include:

u   How do we create a government that does not favor one set of beliefs over another?

u   How do we create a government that acknowledges that no one knows with provable certainty which religious beliefs are correct and which beliefs are not.

u   How do we create a government that acknowledges, respects and honors every one of the thousands of ways there are to connect with and to honor the nature of Divinity?

u   How do we create a government that does not impose any specific religious beliefs on its citizens?

u   How do we create a government that does not prohibit its citizens from holding any specific religious beliefs?

u   How do we create a government that does not prohibit citizens from engaging in their own, chosen, specific, religious practices?

u   How do we create a government that honors freedom of religion?

u   How do we create a government that honors freedom from religion?

u   How do we create a government that protects every person’s right to connect to God any way they choose, including the right not to connect at all?

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A specific Resolution:

 Over the past two-hundred plus  years, judges and freethinking politicians have consistently given us  us the same answer:   A government can accomplish the above only by being neutral with regard to religious matters.  Government can best serve all the people's religious rights by keeping church and state as separate as possible.

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u    The First Amendment of 
           the United States Constitution

"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."

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The symbolic interpretation --   How have the courts have interpreted this amendment over the past two-hundred years?

We'll answer that question based upon:  1) examining the records of the men involved. in creating this document, 2)  looking at the context and the times in which the American Constitution was written, and 3)  reviewing the judicial interpretations made over the ensuing years.

The intention of its authors appears to have been to prohibit any religious faction from dominating secular law -- to prohibit any specific religion from becoming the government-sanctioned religion.   The courts' rulings are in essence saying:

1)  Religious factions are prohibited from using  government property
       to promote their specific religious beliefs.

2)  Religious factions are prohibited from using  taxpayer money
       to promote their specific religious beliefs.

3)   Religious factions are prohibited from using  government laws 
        to force their religious practices onto  someone else.

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The literal interpretation:

The literal interpretation is:
    "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

The fundamentalist so-called Christians look only at the strict literal interpretation of this First Amendment°  clause and are ignore its intention (its spirit).    They also ignore 200 years of  judicial interpretations.   According to them, anything they choose to do is okay as long as Congress doesn't pass a law.   Under that interpretation, they could have George Bush issue an executive order declaring Christianity as the official religion of the United States and still be in compliance with the literal interpretation of that line in the Constitution.

Have you noticed that the phrase, "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" is completely ignored by our anti-choice friends.   Why?   Because that phrase prohibits religious bigots from trampling on someone else's religion.   

And as you are probably well aware of, trampling other people's religion and on other people's religious rights is a major component of fundamental Christianity.   It's called proselytizing.    The goal is to convert those who hold different religious beliefs.  

Do any of you believe that God is so pitifully week that He needs the fundamentalist so-called Christians to use deception, coercion, intimidation, and violence to get people to believe in him.   These people appear to be peddling a false god.   Perhaps it's time for the real Christians to take back Christianity.  

Perhaps it's time to go back to the Bible and re-read the words of Jesus.   He is, after all the source and role model for us to follow.   Did he preach or practice deception, coercion,  intimidation, and violence?    Did Jesus teach his followers to use  harassment,  threats, assault, vandalism, arson, and murder?

It's way past time to bring this "freedom from religion" clause into the foreground.    Abortion is a religious freedom issue and the Constitution clearly guaranteed my God-granted right to practice my religion in any way I so choose. 

And then there is the  "or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; "  clause.   Our so-called Christian friends are violating this cause, too.   See their Global Gag Rule.  

u    Displaying the Ten Commandments  
        on Public Property     **Posting

We frequently hear the fundamentalist Christians challenge those of us who resist their demands for conspicuous, public displays of Christian religious symbols on public property.   The essence of their message is:

You are heathens if you don’t allow Christians to post 
their religious symbols on public property.

Here are three possible solutions.   You tell us which one is ridiculous and which two offers a practical solution to the church/state controversy.   

Option One:  Let’s solve the public display controversy by providing a religious balancing  act.     Let's solve it by allowing Christians to display any sacred symbols that they like anywhere they choose  on public property.   

We'll just allow every other religion to display their symbols there also.   It seem appropriate that sacred symbols of other religions should also be placed on public display wherever the Christian symbols are displayed.

The Constitution, in essence,  requires giving every religion equal time and space.   Our country includes people of every imaginable religious persuasion, and they, too, have a right to publicly speak to the world about their spiritual values.

Let's gather together a collection of symbols from every religion that is presently practiced in the United States and post all of these symbols together on public property.   Let's for example, place statues of Buddha  and Moroni there, as well as the Jewish Star of David.   And how about also displaying the Islamic message,  "There is only one God and Mohammed is his messenger,"  and the Communist, Karl Marx, atheistic maxim:  "Religion is the opiate of the masses." 

And while we are at it, how about erecting a two-and-one-half-ton,  carved-in-granite, Hindu phallic symbol?  Or better yet, let's put up an eight-foot-high, Hindu yoni. symbol.  That should inspire our Christian-preaching, atheist-acting legislators to want to know God.

But we probably shouldn't add a Nazi swastika representing what Adolph Hitler claimed to be "God-inspired, Arian supremacy."   But then, as long as we are representing all God-inspired beliefs on public property, the Nazi believers have an equal right to publicly display the symbol of their faith.

OK, have we solved the problem?    Yes . . .?    No . . .?    Hmm . . .?  
Maybe not.   Perhaps this public display thing is not such a good idea, after all.

Option Two:  Perhaps it's time for the fundamentalist Christians to actually practice what they so adamantly preach.   And that is to  “Follow the words in the Christian Bible.”

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues  [and in churches, in schools, and on television]  and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.   Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.   But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."   Matt 6:6

Option Three:  Let's post 

The Ten Commandments of
 Head and Heart Combined

1)   Love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself.   Love all three with equal intensity, for they are all one and the same thing.

2)   Honor life, honor all life, regardless of what form that life takes.   Honor every living human being for there are non greater and non lesser than yourself.

3)   Realize that attempting to take the source of life which we commonly call God and stick it into a single religion is like trying to fit the universe into a shoe box. 

4)   Realize that it is impossible to know with provable certainty anything at all about God.

5)   Realize that human beings are non-physical, energy beings temporarily living in physical bodies.

6)   Within the context of human life on plane Earth, we  each create our own personal reality by our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, words, and deeds.    

7)   Our emotions empower out thoughts.   

8)    Our thoughts manifest in the context of what we believe, what we expect, what we intend, and what we will and will  not allow ourselves to experience.

9)    Humans are naturally joy seeking beings.   Humans are social animals.   Experiencing the ecstasy of a lingam filled yoni is God giving a gift to God.

10)  Our survival is dependent upon our cooperating with each other and living in sustainable harmony with our local and global environment.