Climate change + 1st Amendment (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, December 06, 2012, 14:49 (4347 days ago) @ hyjyljyj

hy: Thanks David...at this point it's "difficult to know" how anything could keep me away from this site. Seems like a great place to exchange ideas and viewpoints and rejoice in not feeling the need to "pick sides".-Thank you. dhw has set a tone here which allows just what you have found. Nutty folks are treated courteously until they give up and wander off.-> hy: ...and then in the next breath fiercely defend Christians against what I perceive as an open war on them, especially in the US. Every other religion is accorded a measure of dignity and respect-See my comment below:-> hy: They wonder why I strongly support crèches and other Christian artifacts in public settings, and I have to remind them that the 1st Amendment is very explicit: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." The first clause, they get: Congress cannot (and therefore neither can anyone else) ever make any law creating a state or national religion, nor should they ever be able to. The Founders risked their lives specifically and primarily to get away from that. 
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> Hy: But the bolded second clause is consistently ignored. The Founders were very meticulous and precise in making sure the phrase "free exercise thereof" includes no direct mention or indirect suggestion whatsoever of any restrictions on where or how that freedom may be exercised. -As a Jew raised in a Christian nation, allowed to be a citizen with full rights, I appreciate the First amendment just as you do. Granted as a child I saw a degree of anti-semitism, but that is the result of narrow-brained individuals, not the cbasis of this nation. -> hy: Yet no one speaks up in their defense except other Christians, which is baffling and which makes everyone else discount their opinion as illegitimate.-Not true. Rabbi Daniel Lapin is still waging his war against just such garbage. See his book, 'America's Real War', 1999, or his website.-- 
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>hy: [BTW David, I recently discovered a humorous essay of four pages in 14 pt. I wrote some years ago which I had forgotten about, and it made me laugh. It is the tale of Christianity and Roman Catholicism in a Nutshell, as irreverently told by a different kind of Italian from the nuns & priests we had in school...a wiseguy from the other side of the tracks, if you get my drift. Is there an appropriate spot to share it here, -Contact Neil as per his instructions in the Forum list. i'd love to see it.