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Printer-Friendly ModeReligiously charged policies unconstitutional, far too prevalent
July 19, 2005 —
"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."
Have you seen this before in the Bill of Rights? The president himself either does not seem to be familiar with this article, or has apparently ignored it entirely.
It would be wrong for any political party to use the Bible or religion openly as means for justifying laws or action to be taken by the government. I hate to see any politicians trying to use God to their advantage and violating this amendment in the process, but it happens in almost every presidential race that we see or with most politicians that are in power.
The president leads the group of politicians who use their religion as the means to justify actions. When he declares the war on terrorism in Iraq a "crusade," one is reminded of the horrific wars for power of Jerusalem between the Christians and the Muslims.
For Bush to use his Christian upbringing to compare the war on terrorism to the Crusades is unfair to those religions and everyone involved with them. Minorities in the U.S. who are Muslim or of Arab descent are suspected as terrorists simply because they are Muslim or appear "evil" because they look like they could be related to Osama bin Laden.
This "crusade" label has caused mass deaths on both sides as it has added more fuel to an already tense situation. The Constitution was designed to protect this from happening and to prevent one from a particular religion from persecuting others. After all, this is what the majority of the forefathers came here for in the first place – freedom of religion.
President Bush also treads a thin line with many other issues that relate to his religion, including the death penalty, same-sex marriage, and perhaps the most debatable, abortion and stem cell research.
In a televised speech, Bush said, "While we must devote enormous energy to conquering disease, it is equally important that we pay attention to the moral concerns raised by the new frontier of human embryo stem cell research."
He followed this statement by saying that his stance is shaped strongly be his "deeply held beliefs," which one can interpret as his religious stance. This was further strengthened toward the end of the speech when Bush said, "I also believe human life is a sacred gift from our Creator."
Most of us cannot grasp how important these words are because the majority of those in the United States are Christian. But for those who think it is no big deal, picture a Muslim president justifying their actions by invoking Allah and quoting the Koran. If this happened, then many people would have a problem.
I think that repercussions of some kind should be exercised when these issues come to play. Maybe people should just ignore those in the government who say that something should be done and use the Bible or another religious document as their basis.After all, aren't these the same politicians who do not wish to see creation taught in public schools? If nothing is done about this situation, then what our forefathers fought so hard to gain – freedom of religion – will have been in vain.