Quote:
|
Originally Posted by spunkmaster
The first US President "George Washington" cited God in almost every speech he gave and it's freedom of religion and not freedom from religion.
|
It's both freedom of religion and freedom from religion, in the sense that the state shall not impose a religion on the people. As the third President, Thomas Jefferson, said:
Quote:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
|
So I see no issue with a president invoking God, if that's what inspires him, but where does he get off urging Congress to pass laws prohibiting activities based solely on, as Bush claims:
Quote:
|
Human life is a gift from our Creator
|
Sounds like the mixing of church and state to me. How can a person be free from having a religion imposed on them by the state, if the state imposes the DOCTRINE of a particular religion (in this case conservative Christianity) on all the people?
If George W. Bush doesn't want the benefit of say a transplanted piece of pig aorta, then no one is twisting his arm. But let the rest of us choose for ourselves.