Be It Resolved: I Will Stand Up For Church-State Separation
Yes, that’s right — in this country, we not only have the freedom to practice any faith we want but also to be free from professing any religion.
In 2008, newspapers and other mediums are inevitably filled with ruminations on resolutions for the New Year.
Lots of those resolutions will likely urge the citizenry to take all sorts of varying actions, such as resolving to stop overeating or watching too much television.
The lists are also frequently laden with triteness.
But not here at AU’s blog. Instead, we’ll urge citizens and our supporters to remain steadfast in supporting church-state separation and fighting the Religious Right’s crazed theocratic ambitions.
Some among the cabal of Religious Right rabble-rousers will chafe at such a list and blast Americans United, likely lumping us in with other civil liberties groups whom they claim are actually out to muzzle religious people.
The job of Americans United, however, is to protect one of this nation’s greatest gifts to mankind: freedom of conscience. The First Amendment is intended to safeguard the right to believe and practice any religion or not follow any faith at all. Yes, that’s right — in this country, we not only have the freedom to practice any faith we want but also to be free from professing any religion.
So, in the New Year, we should be resolved to take a number of actions.
The Religious Right is not going anywhere. Learn to accept that. Life is full of challenges, annoyances and a myriad of other unpleasant obstacles. As much as we’d like to believe a rather wobbly conventional wisdom that says the Religious Right is dead or on the wane, let’s instead be realistic. The movement continues to rake in impressive sums of money and the major contenders in the 2008 presidential race have been groveling for Religious Right favor. Even right-wing pundits are grumbling about the movement’s continued sway over political power.
Let’s remained committed to scuttling the efforts of our would-be theocratic brethren to push public policy infused with religion at all levels of government.
Yes, it’s tiresome. But in the 21st century, we are still confronted with forces that want to re-define science to include study of the supernatural and force public schools across the nation to teach creationism or its latest variant, “intelligent design.” The creationists and their supporters will continue to push the shopworn argument that evolution is controversial among scientists and that academic freedom requires teaching religious concepts alongside standard science. This is part of a broader campaign to turn our public schools into indoctrination centers that promote fundamentalism. Be resolved to confront these arguments and battle them.
Efforts to fund religion with taxpayers’ dollars are also sure to continue. Some are pushing “faith-based” aid to church-run social services that discriminate in hiring and proselytize among clients. Others are pushing for vouchers and other subsidies for private religious schools. We must resolve to oppose any plan that uses public funds to pay for religion. Our nation’s founders meant for religion to be supported by voluntary contributions of the faithful, not forced extractions from the taxpayers.
There also will be attempts to push “family values” policies. Those policies, in truth, are anything but pro-family. Remember, these so-called family values are based on creating a fundamentalist nanny-state of sorts. The Religious Right wants the government to tell gays and women how to live their lives. These forces also want to tell everyone else what movies, plays and books we should and should not see and read. If Religious Right activists were to have their way, much more than Harry Potter books and movies would be a no-no. We must resolve to fight efforts that undercut individual freedom and equal rights for all Americans.
And in a presidential election year, we must also be resolved to speak out against the injudicious injection of religion into American politics. We must continue pushing back against Religious Right leaders’ demands that the next president be beholden to their agenda. Let’s remind them that the nation’s governing document, the Constitution, bans the melding of church and state.
I could list many more issues that we face in 2008, but the bottom line is the same for all of them. We must resolve to defend the religious liberty provisions of the First Amendment and speak out for the freedom of conscience that is the greatest legacy of the American people.