N.B.: Mr. Justice Scalia is believed to be a member of Opus Dei.
http://www.advocate.com/religion/2016/1/06/supreme-court-justice-scalia-government-should-favor-religion
Supreme Court Justice Scalia Says America Can Be Christian Nation
BY BILL BROWNING | JANUARY 06 2016 9:43 AM EST
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is once again raising eyebrows, most recently by claiming the Constitution does not require the government to be neutral on religious matters. According to the Associated Press, Scalia also said that the United States has been blessed because we honor God.
Speaking at a Catholic high school in Louisiana, the conservative justice told attendees that there is "no place" in the constitution for the idea of seperation between church and state. He followed up by saying there was nothing wrong with the President or other government officials evoking God in speeches.
"To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from?" Scalia said. "To be sure, you can't favor one denomination over another but can't favor religion over nonreligion?"
"God has been very good to us. That we won the revolution was extraordinary. The Battle of Midway was extraordinary. I think one of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor. Unlike the other countries of the world that do not even invoke his name we do him honor. In presidential addresses, in Thanksgiving proclamations and in many other ways," he said. "There is nothing wrong with that and do not let anybody tell you that there is anything wrong with that."
In November, Scalia compared LGBT people to child molesters in a statement in support of referendums determining civil rights. "What about child abusers? So should I on the Supreme Court say this is a deserving minority? Nobody loves them. … No, if you believe in democracy, you should put it to the people.”
The Supreme Court will hear arguments this year in a case challenging President Obama's health care program and whether or not it shields religious schools, charities and hospitals from being forced to provide contraceptives to female employees.
Read more of Scalia's greatest fits here.
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Highlights from the Real History of U.S. Identity and Christianity
1787
Constitution of the United States, Article VI: “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust in the United States.”
Constitution of the United States, Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”
1790
George Washington letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island : “The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support … May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
BTW, according to MountVernon org, which maintains the George Washington digital library, this quote is spurious, i.e., Washington never said or wrote it:"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible."
1797
Treat of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate and signed into law by President John Adams: “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility [sic], of Mussulmen [Muslims]; and, as the said States never have entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”
1802
Letter from President Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in the state of Connecticut: Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercisethereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. [Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the Executive authorised only to execute their acts, I have refrained from prescribing even those occasional performances of devotion, practiced indeed by the Executive of another nation as the legal head of its church, but subject here, as religious exercises only to the voluntary regulations and discipline of each respective sect.] Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
1843
Letter from President John Tyler: “The United States have adventured upon a great and noble experiment, which is believed to have been hazarded in the absence of all previous precedent — that of total separation of Church and State. No religious establishment by law exists among us. The conscience is left free from all restraint and each is permitted to worship his Maker after his own judgment. The offices of the Government are open alike to all. No tithes are levied to support an established Hierarchy, nor is the fallible judgment of man set up as the sure and infallible creed of faith. The Mohammedan, if he will to come among us would have the privilege guaranteed to him by the constitution to worship according to the Koran; and the East Indian might erect a shrine to Brahma, if it so pleased him. Such is the spirit of toleration inculcated by our political Institutions.”
1 comment:
And thus the reason voting is so important.
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