Church and State
Religion is a personal thing. It doesn't belong in a government that is designed to protect the rights of everyone.
N. B.: This brief essay covers some of the same ideas discussed in “Power to the People.” I include it here to illustrate how a single intellectual error can manifest its destructive consequences in a variety of contexts.
“Conservative” pundit Charlie Kirk recently said that,
Let’s set the record straight on the “separation of church and state”:
It’s not in the Constitution
There is no such thing as a separation of morality and state
The morality that built the West comes from the Bible.
America needs more church, not less.
You can have as much “church” as you want…for yourself and your social network.
BUT…
Leave the rest of us out of it.
The federal government should and can do ONLY THOSE THINGS IT IS EXPLICITLY PERMITTED TO DO.
That is what enumerated powers and delegated authority MEAN.
Kirk’s statements are a backhanded and hypocritical attempt to sneak in the wholly fallacious and pernicious idea that if X is not prohibited by the Constitution, then governmental involvement is fine and proper.
Abortion: Questions and Answers
Too many people make this observation: “A positive ‘right to abortion’ is nowhere in evidence in the Constitution”
THAT, my friends, is the carte blanche, authoritarian road to tyranny.
If that is this person’s intent, it and he are ultimately enemies of freedom, rights, AND morality.
Set THAT record straight…
The State most assuredly should be separate from morality, that is, be apart from any PARTICULAR moral code.
Conflating this legitimate principle with the fact that a free society can only be established on the moral principle of rights and freedom and a political establishment that make any (peaceful) morality possible is either disingenuous, flat-out stupid, or an out-and-out lie. We certainly don’t need or require Christianity and its Bible to know what the objectively moral course is to follow, in government or in any other aspect of life.
A key part of a government’s SOLE purpose is to establish a peaceful framework and society so individuals can decide what morality they will choose to follow.
The only role for the state in regard to morality is to prevent my rights from being violated by other people and/or groups…whether Christian, Muslim, Zoroastrian, or atheist.
That. Is. It.
And while I’m at it, it’s funny how prominent pundits like Charlie Kirk mostly respond to questions from college-age people who are largely ignorant of the subtleties and the real factors involved in most controversies and are thus easily refuted.
But these smug, oh-so-clever media darlings ignore any reply that clearly demonstrates errors in their positions and the dangerous implications of their claims.
And as for Kirk: also funny how this “expert” on the Constitution completely evades the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
X or Y do not have to be explicitly stated in the Constitution as existing or being prohibited for them to be included in the Constitution via one of these two all-inclusive amendments. Our rights and powers are, as they say, vast and broad and deep.
Let’s set THAT record straight, as well...
Ninth Amendment:
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Tenth Amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
I wouldn’t trust these “experts” farther than I could throw their ignorant and arrogant asses. Their intellectual “errors” hide a mindset that will destroy the very things they claim to champion. Anyone who listens to and believes this claptrap is no better.
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