"Separation of Church and State" is Beneficial To All

A couple of weeks ago Sarah Palin, failed/abandoned half-Governor of Alaska, started spewing nonsense about this country being a christian country and that the founders wanted their flavor of god to be the basis of all we did.
(Please see: Palin rejects notion that God is separate from the state, Palin denies church-state separation, acknowledges Prayer Warriors affiliation, Sarah Palin Says We’re a Christian Nation — She’s Wrong, and Palin & the Religious Right: A Trojan Horse in the GOP)  


She's even prompted other christianists to add their two cents worth, including Chuck Norris.  After all - who should we listen to concerning the American government than a B-list actor who makes hyper-patriotic movies based somewhere JUUUUUSSTTT a bit outside of reality, a TV series that spends quite a bit of time on Indian affairs concerning Indians that are no longer in Texas, and certainly nowhere near Dallas, and is most recognized now for touting his exercise machine...


Anyways - Palin and her ilk are again doing the combined declaration of "cry for us for we christians are oppressed" and "this is a christian nation and god watches over us".  Any inkling of "Separation of Church and State" is met with "quit oppressing the 70-80% of us god-fearing christians", followed by playing loose with facts concerning the founding fathers' beliefs.  Read "Yeah, What She Said" and "...and What He Said, Too" for some thoughts on the founding father's beliefs...


The christianists have been kind of getting their way lately.  They are 2-1 in recent judicial rulings, with their only loss being a Federal justice ruling that a portion of the law that set up the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. Christianists did win two cases - one in which the words "under god" in the Pledge of Allegiance was declared "patriotic, not religious", and the other declaring that a cross is not a religious symbol.  Talk about activist judges!  Declaring "god" is not religious, and the cross is not a religious symbol!


So the christianists are getting what they want - official recognition and interpretation of the bible as it pertains to the United States.  Based on those rulings and interpretations, I may need to change some habits I've built up over the years.  You see, I had a good friend in high school that was a good catholic, and he took offense to my exclamations of "god damn (it)".  Since that time, I have tried to refrain from using that phrase as it is unnecessarily offensive.  But a Federal court has ruled that god is not a religious term - so I think I will feel less self-conscious about using the phrase "god damn (it)" - how can it be offensive to religious people if "god" is not a religious term?  I might even create some art using bodily fluids and a cross.  Again - no offense should be taken due to the cross not being a christian symbol...

Tim Tebow, his god, and the NCAA

Tim Tebow is headed for the NFL.  He may consider it truly the "No Fun League" (or maybe even the "No Fundamentalist League") since they will not allow him to wear his biblical verse reference under his eyes like the NCAA was happy to.  I had no problem with his noting those passages in his eye-black.  As long as the NCAA didn't restrict any other player from displaying similar items, all is fine.  Shoot - Tebow was just making a small statement of his belief.  He did not preach, from all I have heard he never put somebody down because they did not believe his flavor of god... it was just him making his own statement.

Of course, can you imagine the NCAA allowing John Smith, a reserver tight-end from Podunk U., to write "Satan Rules" in his eye-black?  Of course you can't - you'd need be be on a nasty 60's LSD flashback to picture that scenario happening.

So what can the NCAA do to prevent that from happening?  Well, they could bar all players from any eye-black message, but that would seem hypocritical since they allowed their golden-boy to do it for years - and the NCAA would NEVER allow themselves to be hypocrites....

HA!!!  Barring all eye-black messages is exactly what they JUST DID.  Now that their christ-boy has left the manger, time to make sure nobody sullies their eye-black with something that may offend another (at least another christian).  As long as they were confident that the message would be coming from a good, christian boy, they were fine with it.  Heaven forbid somebody declare "allh akbar" in white on black...  or even (dare I say) "No god".

Friendly Atheist has a slightly different outlook on "The Tebow Rule" you may want to read.