Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Spiraling Towards the Abyss Courtesy of the Supreme Court pt 2

by LostinLiberalLand

Nothing much happened after the "Everson vs. The Board of Education was decided, although if literally enforced at the time it would have turned the country on its head. It wasn't until the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s that a series of decisions by the court using Everson as a basis that religion was gradually removed from the public square and schools.

Three other small but critical events helped fuel the the drive to remove religion from government. First in a 1931 decision in the case of Near vs. State of Minnesota ex rel. Olson the court started applying the 14th amendment to The Bill Of Rights. Once again this was never intended by the crafters of the 14th Amendment. This meant that Amendments designed to apply only to the federal government started being applied to other branches of government. In 1954 Lyndon Johnson a senator from Texas running for reelection was irritated by a tax exempt organization working to defeat him. Without debate or fanfare he had the President of the Senate slip an amendment onto a bill about tax exempt organizations that forbade them from from attempting to influence legislation or elections. He did not intend it to apply to religious organizations, but as is often the case with government, it eventually had consequences that were never intended. In 1976 congress passed the "Civil Rights Attorneys Fees Awards Act of 1976" which was intended to guarantee that the underprivileged could secure their rights in court under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Eventually the act was turned upside down and is now used to hurt small entities.

Today organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union or Americans for Separation of Church and State just need to threaten action and small towns, schools and churches fold like a accordion for fear of being forced to pay outrageous legal fees awarded by the courts. (Fees which many times are totally bogus as the work is donated.) People For the American Way can send out a very threatening letter to churches across the nation warning them not to get involved in politics or they will turn them over to the federal government in an attempt to have their tax exempt status removed.

Today the first ten words of the Bill of Rights designed to keep Congress from establishing a national religion has been extended to every form of government, public property, public funded projects etc. The result has been devastating to the well being of America. Children grow up without the knowledge of the basis of our country's laws and without any basis the laws seem irrelevant. They grow up never learning such patriotic songs as America the Beautiful or God Bless America due to the reference to God. Traditional Christmas Carols and decorations have been removed and we no longer have Christmas Vacation, instead it's winter break. Those students who receive no formal religious training at home grow up in a Godless world, hence the schools turn out millions of students that believe there is nothing greater than themselves. They know of no greater good, have few morals, and absolutely no sense of patriotism or self sacrifice. Any new age fad of a belief system designed to fill the spiritual gap in their life is put on par with Christianity. When life eventually catches up with them and the tragedies that eventually affect all of our lives hit they have no means of coping with them and nowhere to turn. Drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, and suicide become viable alternatives.

The most dangerous result of our Godless society is that our nation no longer has any moral compass. There is no longer a common thread that runs from President to President, from generation to generation. Without that compass I fear we are drifting aimlessly and sooner rather than later we are in for one giant crash.

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