Are you saddened by misuse of the separation of church and state?

It is always sad. But the Lord's people don't gather under a national flag, they gather under the Lord's banner and it doesn't bring him any glory when a nation persists in worsening sin while still claiming to be "Christian". This sends the wrong message to other nations and reproaches God.

Founders intended ts to be a secular government with religion playing no part in it. They saw what appended in Europe, England especially, and realized a free people had to be truely free to govern themslelves regardless of their religious beliefs. So lament god being taken put of taxpayer funded institutions. Which god do you aliens for? The Christian one, the Jewish one, the Islamic one, the Buddhist one, the Hindu one, and any of the others worshipped that are too numerous to keep listing? So which god should the taxpayers acknowledge? And how about those of us who have no such beliefs? Why should my tax dollars go to reinforcing your fairy tale? No, the founders had it right. Government is a secular function for humans by humans. If you want the deity in your government, move to a theocracy, like Iran.

Ummm, having god in schools is not separation of church and state, its exactly the same as being subjected to a national church. Its called freedom of religion, and subjecting everyone to your God would not be freedom of religion. People have every right to believe what they want and the government should not be endorsing any religious belief on people.

I am saddened by ignorant claims and revisionist history by theocrats though.

Also, God wasn't a founding father, he is just a fictional character from a book, that many of the founding fathers didn't even believe in.

I am as saddened by the separation of Church and State as you are that Hinduism, Wicca, Buddhism, Shintoism, Atenism, Satanism, etc. isn't the national religion.

How would you feel if we engraved all of our coins with "In Loki We Trust"?

Anyways, who ever said everyone was Christian? Who ever said that everyone was theistic? Who ever said that YOUR god was the real one and YOUR god is the one we should worship and submit to?

You have no proof or reason to believe that your God is real, is what he is said to be, etc.

You believe it because you want to believe. You have the right to choose to believe in God, so I should have the right be free of religion.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION is one of the great things that our beautiful country is founded on. Freedom of choice. That's the whole point in living in the USA -- having freedom to live our lives the way we want to live it. If I want to be an atheist, I should have the full and complete power to do so.

We're a democracy, not a theocracy. If you want a 100% Christian population, why don't you move out to a theocratic Christian nation?

God not being in schools and government is the U.S. Constitution in action. You're free too indoctrinate your children however you like, you already know this. In fact, America is still one of the LEAST secular countries in the West.

"A way to remove God from the very nation that He founded."

That's strange, I could have sworn the Continental Congress and Army had something to do with it...

Actually, Jefferson, Washington, Paine, Franklin and the rest would be very happy. Boy, did they slam Christianity in their writings. Washington attended a Congregationalist church but left services before "the barbaric ritual cannibalism they call communion".

Jefferson was a deist - ever read his Bible? Better than all of the rest combined.

The state of Louisiana is violating the First Amendment by giving vouchers for Christian schools- oh horrors! Now Islamic schools want vouchers! The moronic legislature forgot there are other faiths in Louisiana. Gosh, I even went to school with many Jewish kids and Jeffrey Schwartzmann was a neighbor/pal as I grew up in New Orleans.

One more time, signed by President Adams in 1797, Article 11 of the Treaty With Tripoli:

"The United States is in no sense founded upon Christian principles".

Does the treaty make itself clear? It passed unanimously in the senate, was posted all over American cities and there was no outrage among our wise founding citizens.

I feel as though the church and state being united is a step backwards towards our evolution as an intelligent species. It would make that only the religious community could be politicians...separation of church and state is the best possible idea ever it could only have positive benefits.

Yes, I am -- those darn theists just can't accept it and keep trying to misuse it.

You do realize that if christians weren't so intent on *forcing* their doctrines into politics, schools, and public life that there would have been much less backlash against them, don't you? For example, the move to prohibit prayer from public schools began not with atheists, but with Catholics in New York -- because the New York schools, in a protestant majority, only allowed "protestant prayers," and protestant teachings in schools that demonized catholics. If the New York protestants hadn't been so intent on forcing their particular dogma on schools, much more reasonable accommodations could have been reached. The fact is, however, that they were so determined to force THEIR particular religious ideas, and exclude all others, that the only solution possible was to ban all school-sponsored prayers.

You've got nobody to blame for what you consider "misuse" but yourselves. Were you more tolerant and accepting, and less dogmatic, things would be different.

Peace.

Yes I am saddened. But from the opposite perspective as you. They inserted "in god we trust" onto our money and "under god" into the pledge of Allegience. Politicians are practically forced to claim religion (almost always Christian) just to be elected. We have states voting to prevent people who love each other from getting married because it doesn't appeal to their religious dogma. We have people trying to claim creationism as a valid science subject to be taught in schools.

I am extremely saddened by the lack of separation of church and state.

It makes me ecstatic!

It keeps morons like you from inculcating naive children with your mental illness under color of governmental authority.

The Fates preserve us as there are still too many religious idiots in the great nation of the United States who haven't a clue of reality.