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Old July 21, 2009, 10:30 PM   #26
ADB
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Join Date: February 28, 2009
Posts: 399
Quote:
For example, "Congress shall make no law establishing a state religion.", suddenly became "A school may not hang the ten commandments." What?! How is a school the same as congress? Incorporated against the states? Fine. A school is STILL not a state legislature either. Original meaning "shall make no law".
That's not quite what it says. It says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

In plain language, the intent of the framers was that no one religion would be elevated above others by means of government sanction. A public school--which is a government facility--hanging a copy of the ten commandments is the tacit endorsement of a particular religious viewpoint. Usually the people pushing such a thing see nothing wrong with it because it's their general viewpoint that's being pushed, but I don't think it would go over as well if, say, school prayers were required to be in Hebrew, or school cafeterias were no longer allowed to serve beef due to Hindi beliefs.
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