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March 25, 2004

Big Government Breeds Religious Conflict

So, the Supreme Court is now hearing arguments on whether or not the Pledge of Allegiance is Constitutional in virtue of containing those two little words “under God.”

Now, my temptation here is to say “a pox on both your houses.” The Pledge boosters are upholding a statist loyalty oath, written by a utopian socialist no less, that I find repugnant. Not to mention, to anyone who takes their religion seriously, the conflation of the state’s authority with God is one of the worst manifestations of civil religion, bordering on idolatry.

On the other hand, this Newdow guy seems like a crank and a whining victimologist. He represents another aggrieved minority demanding that the rest of us bend over backwards to accommodate his oh-so-tender sensibilities.

The problem, it seems to me, is that when the Framers wrote the First Amendment, they had no idea that the federal government would be as large and intrusive as it is now. So, if you take the strict “separationist” line, then you threaten to expel religion from virtually every area of life that government touches on, which nowadays is…virtually every area of life, period. Religious people are understandably alarmed at this prospect.

“Separation of church and state” is a fine concept as far as it goes, but better would be separation of state from as much of life as possible, so as to render these arguments pointless. (I discussed this more here, in my very first STR column!)

Posted by Lee McCracken at March 25, 2004 10:22 AM

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