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Date:      Mon, 11 Aug 1997 10:18:29 -0600 (MDT)
From:      Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com>
To:        "Joel N. Weber II" <devnull@gnu.ai.mit.edu>
Cc:        jmb@freebsd.org, chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FTC regulating use of registrations
Message-ID:  <199708111618.KAA00620@rocky.mt.sri.com>
In-Reply-To: <199708110951.FAA12121@ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
References:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.970810113330.127A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> <199708110951.FAA12121@ethanol.gnu.ai.mit.edu>

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Joel N. Weber II writes:
>    (The 
>    Constitutional question of separation of church and state is pretty
>    much taken care of by giving the vouchers to the parents and not 
>    directly to the schools, although some people still consider it
>    unconstitutional.)  
> 
> My understanding is that the Constiution doesn't actually demand
> a seperation of church and state; it's just htat some liberals would
> like you to believe that.

The 'separatation of church and state' that is touted by some many folks
is simply the fact that the 'state' can *NOT* show any favortism to any
one 'church/religion'.  It doesn't mean that the religion is inherently
bad, or that any religious symbols must be barred, or that we should
ignore the fact that for most people religion is an important part of
their life.

IMHO, ignoring and even being antagonistic to church/religion was not
the original intention of the statement.  The original founder's of this
nation where here because of religious persecution.  The religion they
practiced was not the 'official' religion of the state, and so were
driven out.  Their religion was *very* important to them, but didn't
want the same sort of events to occur in their new country.
Unfortunately, the 'separation of church/state' has become more of an
issue of 'not allowing anything religious', instead of what I believe to
be the original intent of 'not encouraging a specific religion'.

> Furthurmore, I think that the original arguement was that we wanted
> to prevent the government from affecting the churches, not hte otherway
> around.

You hit the nail on the head.


Nate



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