Texas Congressman calls church/state separation his top issue

[Synnical]

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, a congressman who has approved sending troops into battle and voted to set the national budget, says his most crucial duty in the Capitol is defending the separation of church and state.

Over the last decade, Edwards has emerged as one of Congress' most outspoken voices on the issue as a lifelong Methodist who opposes federal intervention or regulation of religion.

Edwards took a leading role in defeating an amendment to the constitution that would have permitted school prayer and is now fiercely opposing aspects of President Bush's faith-based initiatives.

"I consider this the most important issue I've ever dealt with because there's no freedom more important than religious freedom," said Edwards, now in his eighth term. "We want to keep government and government relations out of our houses of worship."

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http://tinyurl.com/3sc84

[onager]

1. Thanks for posting this

I posted it on another board.

[fshrink]

2. An adept of reframing.

Keep religion out of government has been reframed into keep the government out of our churches. Problem is, like always with reframing, that the truth is masked. Oh, well... with the so very litte we've got, guess it's good. When you're hungry you eat crows.

[YankeyMCC]

3. I don't think the truth is masked at all

Framing isn't about hiding the truth it's about putting it in the right context for your audience.

And his point is valid. Freedom of religion is not just about freedom from religion. Government should not be entangled with religion. It's bad for churches it's bad for government and more importantly it's bad for people.

It fosters the "marketplace of ideas" which is good for every freethinker hoping for a continued progression toward enlightenment in a peaceful manner.

[phantom power]

4. that is true as well.

The problem with church invading government is, that eventually one particular church wins. And then, that church goes after all the other churches.

Keeping church and state separated is just as big a win for churches as it is for government. Western Civilization was practically one long sequence of religeous purges, until people started to invent church/state separation. The founding fathers understood this quite well, having lived through it.

[fshrink]

5. So why do we regularly see

the "holy alliance" across religions, kicking in each time that the actual separation is put forth?
As to framing, you can do all kind of stretching you want, it amounts to car salesman tactics, or to a sort of political correctness revisited by marketing experts (which, btw is exactly what it is). In my book, a spade is a spade, and calling it a spade is the pre-requisite for my listening.

[phantom power]

6. There are multiple reasons for alliances

One is that many religeous people are truly convinced (wrongly) that separation of church and state constitutes some kind of threat to them. I blame this mostly on demagoguery. The powerful using people and their beliefs as tools.

The second is the old "enemy of my enemy is my friend". They may be allied now, but eventually, one religeon siezes power. Or, equally likely, one demagogue siezes power, in the *name* of some particular religeon. Then the allies are cast aside, or they fall in line to retain some secondary level of power.

I worry that we may get to see this in action. I'd far prefer to see it only in history books.