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Separation of Church & State Could Start Taking A Big Hit


Screenshot: MSNBC via YouTube

In the first days of November, Donald Trump held a rally in Huntington, West Virginia.


Before Trump spoke, West Virginia Senator Shelly Moore took the stage, and had a pastor give a "speech" to God: "We Declare that you are supreme-the utmost authority," declared the pastor.


That moment inspired Splinter News' Hamilton Nolan to write, "Republicans and Islamists have much more in common than they ever acknowledge."


That statement is not rooted in hyperbole, but rather the facts and the Christian Rights push to devalue American laws, and it's philosophical belief of separation between church and state.


"The attack on separation of church and state involves twisting words and reading history backwards, and it involves making an inconvenient part of the Constitution disappear," writes Garrett Epps, about those who argue that there isn't separation of church and state in the Constitution. "Most ardently espoused by loud foes of 'big government,' the attack aims to place government in charge of Americans' spiritual lives."


Former Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), once said during a radio interview that taking the Bible out of public schools was an act of "institutional racism," and that Obama and Hillary's "own policies" were at the root of the problem.


"When you don't tell people what is ethically good and bad, right," said Brat to the radio interviewer. "If you cannot even define what a morally good life is anymore and you block the Bible and you block the Baptist church, which is fundamental in the African-American community, from being the voice of power and the only hope you give is a broken federal system of government."


In July, 2016, right-wing pastor Jim Garlow floated the idea of getting the government out of the job of handling social safety net programs, leaving it to be the job of churches, so that they could get rid of the "freeloaders."


"This is going to sound pretty radical to the ear of most listeners," Garlow admitted. "We're sp out of tune with Scripture. For several hundred years, we're, for the first part of the history of this country, we did a good job at the health and welfare of people because it was in the role of the church, and the church has the DNA to do that."


Multiple people from the Christian Right have argued throughout recent years that the Islam is not protected by the First Amendment. One such person to make this argument was asshole Rick Santorum:


"The fact of the matter is, Islam is different. I know this is going to come as a shock to a lot of people, and I mean this sincerely. Islam is not just a religion. It is also a political governing structure. The fact of the matter is, Islam is a religion, but it is also Sharia law, it is also a civil government, it is also a form of government. And, so, the idea that that is protected under the First Amendment is wrong."


This is sick and twisted irony, for the fact that the Christian Right says Islam is evil because it is "also a form of government," as argued by Santorum, but that Christians, such as Garlow, have argued for such a thing, but with Christianity.


RightWingWatch on the governmental structure "embraced" by dominionist Christians:


"Many Religious Right leaders have embraced Seven Mountains dominionism, which is grounded in the belief that the right kind of Bible-believing Christians are meant to control all the important spheres of culture, including government, business, education, and entertainment."


You have Sam Rohrer, of the American Pastors Network, who once said, "Government leaders are charged with wielding the Word of God as an instrument of Justice, promoting God's moral law as the foundation of right and wrong, encouraging those who do well biblically, and executing judgement on those who break the law."


The reason I mention all of this-roughly a week ago, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a court case that could cause lasting damages to the idea of separation of church and state.


The Supreme Court will decide whether a local government can display a 40-foot table Latin cross on public property. Although a federal appeals court has previously ruled that the cross violated the Constitution's laws on the separation of church and state, but the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh means that the lower court decision could likely be reversed-fucking great.


"In a society where government may fund religious displays and expressions of religious belief, lawmakers are likely to divert funding from schools, roads and other essential services to such displays," writes ThinkProgress.


ThinkProgress continues:


"Worse, candidates for office may campaign on promises that they will use their office to advance one religious belief or another-and elections could become referendums on religious identity rather than debates over policy."


When the Supreme Court allows public money to be spent on religious displays, the Christian Right is obviously going to try to get more, and why wouldn't they? They're hellbent on shoving their ideology down your throat.


Public money to religious displays, public money to churches who deal with the social safety net programs, and in the near future, look to see the Supreme Court grant the Religious Right special rights to discriminate against those from the LGBTQ community.


With regards to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh doesn't represent job done, but rather, represents just the beginning for the Christian Right.


"Prophetic" Dominionist Dutch Sheets has asked people to thank God for the last couple of years of Supreme Court nominations:


"Thank you for all those that have interceded for a shift in the Supreme Court – the shift we are now experiencing. We won’t be content with just one more conservative justice. We want at least two more and maybe three more strong constitutionalists on our high court!"


Anyone who can think for themselves know that Donald Trump is not a Christian, and the leaders within the Christian Right know that. They are cynically using Trump as a vessel, using Trump's moral bankruptcy to put into place their own agenda.


For decades the Christian Right has been festering, and this is their best chance to pull off the coup d'etat that forever rewrites, and destroys the Constitution.


A Dominionist, and a lot of others from the Christian Right has more ideologically in common with someone who believes in Sharia law, than they do with me.

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