1791 James
Madison: Congress
shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof.
1802 Thomas
Jefferson:
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment guarantees
Americans a
wall of separation between
church and state.
1954 Dwight
Eisenhower:
The separation of church and state surely won't
be hurt by adding "under God" to
The Pledge of Allegiance in the name of anti-Communism, will it?
1960 John
F. Kennedy:
The separation of church and state is absolute.
My church will not dictate my policy decisions.
2008 Mitt
Romney:
The separation of church and state is relative.
My church will dictate my policy decisions, but only to the extent
that I will discriminate
against the same people Christian conservatives would already be
discriminating against anyway.
2009 Bart
Stupack:
The separation of church and state is a
fairy tale.
My church will show up at the Capitol steps in a limo to dictate
policy.
2012 Rick
Santorum:
The separation of church and state is an
abomination.
"Earlier in my political career, I had the opportunity to read
the speech [by JFK to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association in
1960], and I almost threw up."
2012 Sally
Quinn:
The separation of church and state is impossible.
“This is a religious country. Part of claiming your citizenship is
claiming a belief in God, even if you are not Christian.”
Agnostics, atheists, and other nonbelievers need not apply.
2014 Rick
Santorum (again):
The very notion of the separation of church and state is "a
Communist idea that has no place in America."
2015 Fifty-seven
percent of surveyed Republicans:
The separation of church and state is sacreligious,
since the U.S. Constitution is a document inspired by Our Lord Jesus
Christ, so it
counts as Holy Scripture.
2015 Rand
Paul, libertarian-of-convenience:
The separation of church and state is a
one-way street:
"The First Amendment says keep government out of religion. It
doesn't say keep religion out of government."
2015 Jeb
Bush, "moderate"
GOP presidential candidate:
The separation of church and state is nothing more
than a "game" of "political
correctness."
2015 Bobby
Jindal,
2016 vice-presidential hopeful (and staunch opponent
of executive orders, when it's Obama, who not that long ago told
fellow Republicans they had to stop being "the
party of stupid"):
The separation of church and state can
be disposed of by simple executive order
from the governor, even after the GOP-controlled state legislature
killed
the same anti-LGBT bill the week before.
2 comments:
JIndal's move is literally a kind of anti-veto, like signing legislation after it didn't pass? If so, that must put his at the climax point of a bunch of stories like this, like the one about the history of democracy, or the history of accusing other people of tyranny. Breathtaking.
Hello! I share your puzzlement. Mostly I was reminded of the classic "Animal House" scene:
This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part - and we're just the guys to do it!
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