WP: Religious Freedom Revisons (to 1786 Founders' words) Rejected in VA

[DeepModem Mom]

Religious Freedom Revisions Rejected
Va. Senate Panel Kills Amendment

By Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 22, 2005; Page B01


RICHMOND, Feb. 21 -- A Senate committee spent two hours Monday debating what Virginia's founders intended when they wrote about religious freedom two centuries ago before soundly rejecting a proposal to expand on their words.

The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted 10 to 5 to reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would have explicitly recognized the right to pray on public property, including schools.

The amendment to Article I, Section 16, would have inserted a paragraph amid wording on religious liberty composed by founding fathers Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Mason and unchanged since 1786.

Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr. (R-Grayson), who authored the proposed amendment, said it would strengthen and preserve the spirit of the founders' words. New language was needed, he said, to counter court decisions that have persecuted Christians and expelled expressions of faith from the public square....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42529-2005Feb21.html

[Fenris]

1. More fun from the "persecuted Christians"

[saltpoint]

2. Perhaps people who want to pray should haul it down --

-- to a church and do so and leave everybody else alone.

[underpants]

3. Read Article I, Section 16 here:

http://legis.state.va.us/Laws/search/Constitution.htm

Section 16. Free exercise of religion; no establishment of religion.

That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other. No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain their opinions in matters of religion, and the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. And the General Assembly shall not prescribe any religious test whatever, or confer any peculiar privileges or advantages on any sect or denomination, or pass any law requiring or authorizing any religious society, or the people of any district within this Commonwealth, to levy on themselves or others, any tax for the erection or repair of any house of public worship, or for the support of any church or ministry; but it shall be left free to every person to select his religious instructor, and to make for his support such private contract as he shall please.

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for providing the wording, underpants!

n/t

[underpants]

6. Seems pretty straight forward to me

and it definitely doesn't include any kind of "persecution" of Christians quite the opposite.

What a bunch of morons.

[wtbymark]

4. i applaud that state senate for preserving

the words of the founders 'as is' - these attacks by the fundie pukes to change our country into their christian view is only going to cause more and more division, and where does that lead? another contest between the north and south, and it won't be the 'blue/grey' football game.

[underpants]

7. You realize this is a completely Repub run legislature

they obviously don't have a clue as to do what they are supposed to be doing.

Let's see what legislation have THEY put forward this session
-This "religous freedoms" crap
-The "no underwear over your jeans in public" embarassment
and
-The 12 hour miscarriage notification bill that like the others got pulled or immediately voted down. (PS almost no local coverage of that monstrousity of a bill).

[GiovanniC]

8. Christians Can Pray on Public Property NOW

So can Muslims, Jews, et. al.

It's when the teachers lead the kids in prayer, or idiots insist on posting the Ten Commandments in courthouses or manger scenes at City Hall at the exclusion of all non-Christian religions that presents a problem with the separation of church and state. It's when the Christians are unhappy unless the government sponsors THEIR religion that poses First Amendment Issues.

Nobody has ever been hauled off to jail for silently praying on public property.

However, Jesus wouldn't like it too much:

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly..."
Matthew 6:5-6

[cosmicdot]

9. PTL ... "unchanged since 1786" ...

thank goodness the VA Senate committee killed it (I'm surprised actually)

it had passed the House of Delegates panel 14-4!!!

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14796


~snip~

The religious-freedom resolution found wide support for remedying what its sponsor, Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr., contends is a growing bias against Christians.

He said other nations upheld their founding religious tenets and compelled respect for them, specifically noting the Muslim culture of Arab countries as an example. Then, he quoted Patrick Henry in appealing for greater leeway for Christianity.

~snip~


irony: certainly Del. Carrico knows his fuhrer is saying his oil wars are really to bring liberty and freedom to the countries he cites as his justification


please unseat these extremists