Monday, July 30, 2007

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times published an excerpt from the book Blasphemy: How the Religious Right Is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence, by Alan Dershowitz. The issue: separation of church and state. Mr. Dershowitz shows a surprising lack of understand. Essentially he says the religious right wants to break down the "wall of separation in Church and State" to form a state-run religion. A religion run by the government is exactly what the religious right does not want. Therefore Dershowitz is actually in agreement on this point and in agreement with Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson coined the phrase in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, he was trying to protect the free practice of religion by not setting a federally sponsored religion. The religious right see a twisting of this original intent. Instead of protecting religion, the past few decades shows rulings and legislation impinging on religious freedom.

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