Separation of Church and State: A Big BS Story

Ya know I've always been intrigued about the argument about the separation of church and state. Does religion have a place in politics and and everyday government? The answer is: who gives a flying flip. The idea of the separation of church and state is a crock of crap. Think about this: Back when our country was first founded (by white, upper class, slaveholding, Christian people) and our Constitution was written, many of the founding fathers were linked to or even a part of the church. Also, these guys were the cream of the educational crop for back then, and at least most of them were observant enough to see that religion and government affected each other. So here's how it went:

The leaders of the church met with the founders and struck a deal. The religious sect of the country would bear down on the populous, scaring them into thinking that if they were to sin (or in this case, break the law) they were going to hell. In return, the government lets them slide on their property taxes, and none of the income brought into any church would be taxed. In short, the church is acting as a mass crowd control and PR agent for the government, and they government is paying the church off by not taxing anything they own or earn. They then came up with this "separation of church and state" law as a way to cover up the deal.

Wha?

Our country was not founded by Christians. It was founded by Deists who wanted to keep religion out of government. They knew how badly it had ravaged Britain (read about all the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, and then Puritans came in and…) and they saw how ineffective government was with this kind of thing going on.

I would suggest reading some books by the founding fathers. Jefferson. Paine. Especially Paine. Franklin's got some good quotes. Paine is my personal favorite. The Age of Reason was just too good not to have read.

The seperation of church and state is a fundamental principal of the U.S. government and is perhaps the first of which to have been intentionally crafted into a secular state. The founders knew of the decades of religious wars caused by the lack of seperation and hence wanted to prevent the possibility of it in the new land later to be named the United States of America. Many of the founding fathers were indeed Deist, and it's even possible that a small fraction were atheist. I believe there may have been Christians, but they were not the majority, nor the most influential.

In their own words:

"Christianity...(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ...Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus."
- Thomas Jefferson

"The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity."
- John Adams

"The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
- Treaty of Tripoli

"Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins... and you will have sins in abundance."
- Thomas Paine

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his Divinity..."
- Benjamin Franklin

"Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, 'This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no [organized] religion in it!'"
- John Adams

And here are some articles I recommend:

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/buckner_ncn.html
http://www.infidels.org/library/mode.../carrier2.html

And for further elaboration on the first quotation, read the following article:
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/paulvpeter.html

I believe that's the article I mean to refer you to. If not, you can simply browse the site of which the following article is a part of.

I am full aware that the founding fathers did not want the problems government and religion had in the Old World. However, it does not explain why religion is treated so differently by our government. We have the right to free speech, yet our magazines, newspapers, cable subscriptions, and books are taxed. We have the right to bear arms, yet our guns and ammo are taxed. Why is religion excluded from this? Why don't churches pay property taxes? Why don't clergymen pay income tax? Why doesn't a church pay taxes on the offering income it gets? The answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.

....Ya know I've always been intrigued about the argument about the separation of church and state. Does religion have a place in politics and and everyday government? The answer is: who gives a flying flip...

Well I do for one. Even though I live no where near the US, my country (and lets face it most of the rest of the world) still gets affected by US policies. I would much rather the US government at least had a non-religious foundation to its decision making policy (even if the decisions made my it are crap!)

... Why is religion excluded from this? Why don't churches pay property taxes? Why don't clergymen pay income tax? Why doesn't a church pay taxes on the offering income it gets? The answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated.

The answers to these questions are probably to do more with systematic corruption (both within the govt and the chruch) than anything else.

Also churches try to take a high moral ground approach to doing what they do, claiming that they are benevolent not for profit do-good organisations and therefore should be exempt from paying taxes etc. For some this might be true but as we all can see there are others that grow fat on the back of their flock.

Church tax exemption is one thing that I really wish would change. If they are not-for-profit, let them prove it, and fit in with other nonprofit organizations. Otherwise, they are making money from providing a service, and as such should be taxed just like any other company.

I should get a job at the 700 club, I could be sitting in a golden throne and getting paid.