Best depiction of the need for Separation of Church and State yet...

[Cheap_Trick]

From this year's CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund) annual....











The CBLDF is dedicated to the protection of free speech by comic book creators. They are a federally recognized 501(c)non-profit organization. Go to your nearest comic book shop and buy a copy of this year's book.

http://cbldf.org/

[polmaven]

1. Great post...

I have said for years that I completely agree with the separation of church and state because I don't want the church "meddling" in my government any more that I want my government "meddling" in my church.

[get the red out]

2. You can see the results of non-separation now

The fundamentalist Christians have sold their souls to the Republican Party and now they cannot support job opportunities, health care, and educational opportunities for their own parishioners or the Republicans might cease to support all of their social hate agenda. What a sticky spot to be in! They now have to go against basically everything Jesus stood for.

[msongs]

4. it's not the fundamentalist christians murdering kids with drones....oh wait... nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Written by JMS! Go Joe!

[Xithras]

5. There's just one major error in there.

The "Founders" didn't cover anything, and certainly didn't ban churches from talking politics in exchange for a tax examption. That isn't even close to what really happened.

The taxation of churches was a huge and ongoing public debate in America for most of its history. Some people said that the First Amendments requirement that Congress "make no law respecting an establishment of religion" could also be interpreted to ban the taxation of religious establishments. Others said that it simply prohibited the government from establishing a national religion. Still others pointed out that the First Amendment prohibits the government from interfering with the practice of religion, and the taxation of tithes would do just that. The courts generally agreed with the second view, but did famously say that the power to tax equalled the power to destroy, and that the government shouldn't have the power to destroy religion. Still, even without a single codified exemption anywhere, churches were generally not taxed on their income. At the same time, they were totally free to say anything they wanted about politics.

In 1954 Senator Lyndon Johnson introduced a tax code amendment that banned all registered nonprofit organizations from endorsing political candidates. The tax amendment wasn't actually targeted at churches, but was intended to wipe out "non-profit charities" that were acting as unofficial PAC's and were being used to divert support and funds to political campaigns. After it was approved, the IRS pointed out that the new law also covered churches, and notified religious institutions that the new law threatened their tax-exempt status if they endorsed or supported political candidates. The churches were furious, but they eventually went along with it.

The prohibition on churches interfering in politics was written by Senator Lyndon Johnson, passed through the 83rd Congress, and was signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1954. There were no founders involved.

[Zebedeo]

6. +1

Nice post.

[swimboy]

7. Thanks, Pastor Bob!

:thumbsup:

[Nye Bevan]

8. Ironically, in the UK there is *no* separation of church and state,

and the country is much less religious than the US. Many fewer people in the UK attend church, and religion is largely viewed as a private matter. Moreover, 2 of the 3 major party leaders are atheists, and nobody cares.

[AnnieBW]

9. JMS is an egotistical hack, but

even egotistical hacks can be right sometimes.