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On the separation of church and state
"Congress shall make law respecting the establishment of
religion, or the freedom thereof." - First Amendment
For the past 31 years, those words have been interpreted by the
United States Supreme Court in a way that our founding fathers
never expected M-Q a separation of church and state.
That decision has led to a moral decay of our country and has
even taken away freedoms that we were guaranteed. We are no
longer allowed to pray at football games or school. While the
Bible-belt of North Louisiana still practices public prayer, it
is unconstitutional according to the Supreme Court.
So where did those famous words of separation of church and state
come from? Most people think it is mandated by either the Bill of
Rights or the Constitution. But it's not; in fact that guarantee
cannot be found in any government document.
The Supreme Court created the words from a letter that Thomas
Jefferson wrote in 1801 to the Danbury Baptist in Connecticut
that were fearful that a national denomination was being created.
Jefferson wrote that "a wall of separation between church
and state" had been constructed to protect against the creation
of national denominations. He never mentioned the notion of
ending religion's influence upon the people.
But that is exactly what happened. And in what has been a
catastrophic decision, books were taken out of classrooms due to
religious references. No longer could students read George
Washington's farewell address because of the continued allusions
to
the importance of religion.
He stated that we cannot "expect that national morality can
prevail in exclusion of religious principles." And it hasn't.
In 1791, Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Constitution, foresaw the
problem of crime that our society faces today. He said that
without the influence of religion he grieves to think how we will
"waste so much time and money punishing crimes, and so
little pains to prevent them."
Since the 1962 Supreme Court decision of "Engel versus Vitale"
that defined the word "church" as any religious activity, the
number of violent crimes has risen 544 percent. In return, we
have the Los Angeles riots, drive-by shootings, rapes, and
burglaries. Just last week, we had two attempted armed robberies
on campus.
People don't care about the consequences of doing wrong. Do they
even know that killing is wrong? If student's would have been
exposed to the Ten Commandments, which were once taught in
literature, they would have known.
Noah Webster, who gave us Article 1, Section 8 of the
Constitution, in his writings said, "All the miseries and evils
which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice,
oppression, slavery, and war proceed from neglecting the percepts
contained
in the Bible."
But crime is not the only area that has seen an increase in
numbers after the 1962 decision. The pregnancy rate of unwed
women between the ages of 15-19 has risen 450 percent in just 30
years.
Sure, the rates in crime and pregnancy didn't rise just because
of the decision that separated church and state. But it did have
a large impact.
For over 170 years, the country survived without the separation
of church and state. But in 30 years time, we have elevated the
course of destruction for our country. While some progress has
been made within the past six years at reversing the
Supreme Court's decision, the damage is being done.
In a country that prints "In God We Trust" on our currency and
uses the Bible to swear in our elected officers, the influence of
religious principles is a staple in the stability and continued
success of our country. Let's not lose it.
Trey Williams is a senior journalism major from Minden and is
editor of The Tech Talk.
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