It Doesn't Exist! (Please Read for some interesting things...)
Heard tell of it through a couple of people, so I went and looked it up myself. :)
This is an original article written by me. Don't steal. ~DarkShines_
Pretty much everybody has heard of the Separation of Church and State. A lot of people have seen places where prayer is forbidden in schools, or religious groups are forbidden at school, even had Bible banned in public school zones.
Nearly everyone 'knows' that this Separation is Constitutionally correct.
This just goes to show how few people have actually read and understood the Constitution and its Amendments.
The First Amendment, not the Consitution, states:
The First Amendment :
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
So basically the Congress aren't allowed to make a law in favour or against any religion; they aren't allowed to pass a law to keep any group(s) from assembling, or to inhibit their free speech.
This is where the Separation comes from: A letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, written by Thomas Jefferson.
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
We make the separation by limiting the government on what it can and cannot do. The function of the First Amendment was to keep the government from making public schools stop praying.
There is no 'legal' separation of church and state. It's often used in the media, even court rulings now, but it isn't law. It isn't....anything. When the government makes schools stop the prayer (and makes you use 'a moment of silence' instead), or disallow Bibles, they're actually tresspassing on your rights. This is what the First Amendment was supposed to keep from happening.
And yet it happens anyway.
As a side note, the only country to actually include the words "Separation of Church and State" in their Constitution is the former nation of the U.S.S.R.--a communist state.
Nearly everyone 'knows' that this Separation is Constitutionally correct.
This just goes to show how few people have actually read and understood the Constitution and its Amendments.
The First Amendment, not the Consitution, states:
The First Amendment :
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
So basically the Congress aren't allowed to make a law in favour or against any religion; they aren't allowed to pass a law to keep any group(s) from assembling, or to inhibit their free speech.
This is where the Separation comes from: A letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, written by Thomas Jefferson.
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
We make the separation by limiting the government on what it can and cannot do. The function of the First Amendment was to keep the government from making public schools stop praying.
There is no 'legal' separation of church and state. It's often used in the media, even court rulings now, but it isn't law. It isn't....anything. When the government makes schools stop the prayer (and makes you use 'a moment of silence' instead), or disallow Bibles, they're actually tresspassing on your rights. This is what the First Amendment was supposed to keep from happening.
And yet it happens anyway.
As a side note, the only country to actually include the words "Separation of Church and State" in their Constitution is the former nation of the U.S.S.R.--a communist state.
21 Comments
Nicely done! That is really intresting.. :D
*interesting xD
Instresting........
Well, the First Amendment, for all intents and purposes, IS the constitution. Or part of it. An amendment is in fact a change to the constitution.
Furthermore, at least in the case of mandatory prayer, the school is in fact stepping on your rights by forcing you to show reverence to a particular god, but...
Yes, I know that the Amendments are for the Constiution, a part of it.
In the case of mandatory prayer, the only places where that happens are in religious schools. You know that going in.
In religious schools now anyway. I'm not too sure of what prayer was like before government got stupid about it, but you could always offer a silent prayer to the Deity/Deities you worship during that time anyway.
Well, there's the whole "prayer in public schools" debate, which is what I thought you were talking about.
If not...meh. I don't really LIKE the idea of schools asking that kind of thing of you (doesn't seem to be a needed price), but it's not like it's the only option, so...I can see your point.
Yep, I'm talking about prayer in public schools (though this really could be extended to a few other things as well), it was just you mentioned mandatory prayer.
Well, wasn't the prayer in public schools debate about a sort of "prayer period" in schools? That's the argument I've heard.
Yeah. My local high school renamed it "A moment of silence." XD Please....
XD oh gods.
My school actually has one of those. XD
I should be worried. XD
Yeah, it makes no sense. I don't go to a public school and I'm not Christian but I've heard that they don't allow that in public schools. It makes no sense. What's the point of freedom of religion if you can't practice it everywhere, including school? Then it's not freedom anymore.
cool. i've heard that it doesn't exist in the constitution, but i wondered where the term came from.
true, the constuition says that, i remember reading that last year
not your thinking on it, but the constuition
That would be awful, good thing my country respects all churches here...
In school, you do not have any rights. I've argues on this to my school before.
They disallow us to cuss, but I brought up the first Amendment.
They tell me that we don't have those rights in school, that you do whatever they tell you.
So......