Wednesday, January 7, 2004

Courts trample 1st Amendment

In response to Steve Stewman’s letter, I would like to add something I recently read concerning the First Amendment, and the Constitution as a whole.

The First Amendment reads, “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.”

It does not forbid the states, cities, or any other governmental agency from making laws concerning religion. In fact, all powers not specifically granted to the federal government, or prohibited to the states (such as coining currency), are reserved to the states.

The Tenth Amendment reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” That means that not only are the states not forbidden to make laws concerning religion, the power to do so is theirs. In fact, several states had recognized state religions at the time of the ratification of the Constitution. Not one of them was declared unconstitutional, because they weren’t!

I can promise you the First Amendment would have never passed if the state legislators had any inkling that it would abrogate their powers to support or prefer one religion over another as they saw fit. No one in the time of passage of that amendment ever dreamed it would be twisted to exclude religion, God, prayer, and moral choices from the public arena.

This argument about “separation of church and state” has never been about insulting sensitive people. It has always been about closing God out of public notice. It is about preventing mention of Him or prayer to Him in order to deny his relevance to everyday life. That is a personal choice by a select few that have decided the rest of us need to live by their “rules.”

Well, the Constitution of the United States has been perverted long enough. It’s time for the courts to return to their original boundaries as defined in that same Constitution, to interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. It’s time to interpret the Constitution and laws of this land by what is written. It’s time for justice to prevail, not pandering.

God has been rendered superfluous long enough too. Think you that by taking discussion and reference to Him out of the public eye that you can ease your own conscience; that by denying His existence and His right to acknowledgment that you can make Him go away? Think again. The more you run, the more your inability to escape your own guilt will keep you awake at night.

Perhaps it is time to petition the government for a redress of grievances: i.e., sue the socks off officials who continue to prohibit the free exercise of religion.

Mary Barranti

Peachtree City, Ga.