buckeye
2008-10-26 09:57:56 UTC
S.C. Legislature: Lord's Prayer a Legal Document
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/sc-legislature-lords-pray_b_129081.html
Chris Rodda
Posted September 26, 2008 | 01:52 PM
[excerpt]
As recent court rulings have shown, a nearly sure-fire tactic for getting
away with displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools and other
government buildings is to make this list of religious edicts part of a
larger display that includes secular historical and legal documents. In
South Carolina, a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Mark Sanford takes
this strategy to a new level, contriving an historical reason to add the
Lord's Prayer to the list of documents to be included in that state's
government displays of "educational and informational material regarding
the history and background of American law."
In the South Carolina bill H. 3159, (now Title 10, Chapter 1, Section 168
of the state's code of laws), number eleven in a list of thirteen documents
to be included in these "American law" displays is the Lord's Prayer, for
which the bill's authors concocted the following historical pretext.
(11) The Lord's Prayer, used to teach people how best to seek their
daily needs, is a model of philosophy and inspiration for legal and moral
systems throughout the ages. In the colonies, James Oglethorpe brought
debtors to freedom in our neighboring State of Georgia in remembrance of
'forgiving our debts as we forgive our debtors'.
This invention of a connection between Oglethorpe's founding of Georgia and
the Lord's Prayer is not only ridiculous from an historical perspective,
but is completely unsupported by the obscure legal authority cited by the
South Carolina Attorney General in his written opinion on how the display
of this prayer would withstand constitutional challenges.
First of all, the story of James Oglethorpe bringing debtors to Georgia
simply isn't true. Oglethorpe did initially include this idea in his plan
for the colony, but it didn't end up happening. It turned out that there
were plenty of poor tradesmen, farmers, and other desirable "worthy poor"
who were willing to to emigrate from England to the new colony, so
recruiting the colony's labor force by springing debtors from prison just
wasn't necessary, and that part of the plan quickly fell by the wayside.
[end excerpt]
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/sc-legislature-lords-pray_b_129081.html
Chris Rodda
Posted September 26, 2008 | 01:52 PM
[excerpt]
As recent court rulings have shown, a nearly sure-fire tactic for getting
away with displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools and other
government buildings is to make this list of religious edicts part of a
larger display that includes secular historical and legal documents. In
South Carolina, a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Mark Sanford takes
this strategy to a new level, contriving an historical reason to add the
Lord's Prayer to the list of documents to be included in that state's
government displays of "educational and informational material regarding
the history and background of American law."
In the South Carolina bill H. 3159, (now Title 10, Chapter 1, Section 168
of the state's code of laws), number eleven in a list of thirteen documents
to be included in these "American law" displays is the Lord's Prayer, for
which the bill's authors concocted the following historical pretext.
(11) The Lord's Prayer, used to teach people how best to seek their
daily needs, is a model of philosophy and inspiration for legal and moral
systems throughout the ages. In the colonies, James Oglethorpe brought
debtors to freedom in our neighboring State of Georgia in remembrance of
'forgiving our debts as we forgive our debtors'.
This invention of a connection between Oglethorpe's founding of Georgia and
the Lord's Prayer is not only ridiculous from an historical perspective,
but is completely unsupported by the obscure legal authority cited by the
South Carolina Attorney General in his written opinion on how the display
of this prayer would withstand constitutional challenges.
First of all, the story of James Oglethorpe bringing debtors to Georgia
simply isn't true. Oglethorpe did initially include this idea in his plan
for the colony, but it didn't end up happening. It turned out that there
were plenty of poor tradesmen, farmers, and other desirable "worthy poor"
who were willing to to emigrate from England to the new colony, so
recruiting the colony's labor force by springing debtors from prison just
wasn't necessary, and that part of the plan quickly fell by the wayside.
[end excerpt]
***************************************************************
You are invited to check out the following:
The Rise of the Theocratic States of America
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocracy.htm
American Theocrats - Past and Present
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/theocrats.htm
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
[and to join the discussion group for the above site and/or Separation of
Church and State in general, listed below]
HRSepCnS · Historical Reality SepChurch&State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HRSepCnS/
***************************************************************
. . . You can't understand a phrase such as "Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion" by syllogistic reasoning. Words
take their meaning from social as well as textual contexts, which is why "a
page of history is worth a volume of logic." New York Trust Co. v. Eisner,
256 U.S. 345, 349, 41 S.Ct. 506, 507, 65 L.Ed. 963 (1921) (Holmes, J.).
Sherman v. Community Consol. Dist. 21, 980 F.2d 437, 445 (7th Cir. 1992)
. . .
****************************************************************
USAF LT. COL (Ret) Buffman (Glen P. Goffin) wrote
"You pilot always into an unknown future;
facts are your only clue. Get the facts!"
That philosophy 'snipit' helped to get me, and my crew, through a good
many combat missions and far too many scary, inflight, emergencies.
It has also played a significant role in helping me to expose the
plethora of radical Christian propaganda and lies that we find at
almost every media turn.
*****************************************************************
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE:
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
http://members.tripod.com/~candst/index.html
****************************************************************