What is government’s role in social programs?
A former Bush administration official, Michael Gerson, threw that idea out in the November issue of Christianity Today in support of the welfare state. That might explain why Gerson’s great, great grandchildren will not be U.S. citizens. Following this strategy, there will not be a United States.
“The mainstream Christian reflection has concluded that government has an important role in pursuing the common good,” he says. “It plays an important role in defending the weak and the vulnerable.”
I guess the decision makers forgot to ask me before they came to this decision. Had they, I might have suggested this country adopted a separation of church and state principle long ago. Perhaps we should stick to it.
To an assumption that welfare programs are illegal because they are not in the Constitution Gerson says, cutting the programs “would be an act of great cruelty.” He is right, unless the programs are replaced by something better.
When Franklin Roosevelt brought us socialism through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid he mortgaged our future. When Lyndon Johnson multiplied these programs with his Great Society in the 1960s, he destroyed families. Now it is pay day.
America is better than the two-party government that has created this mess. We…
Cowardly spiritual leaders censor messages, not Big Brother
Some want you to believe spiritual leaders across the land are a bunch of cowards more afraid of the IRS than the Almighty.
For instance, Wayne Gruden, research professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, recently opined that since 1954 the IRS has forced churches to refrain from promoting or opposing any political candidate by name.
“The IRS has insists that any speech by churches that deals with candidates for political office, including a pastor’s sermon, could result in a church losing its non-profit, tax-exempt status,” Gruden says. “This law has suppressed the valuable moral guidance that American pulpits could be contributing to our political process.”
Wasn’t it the president’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who preached, “God damn George Bush?” Haven’t blacks Baptists, Catholics and Jews used the pulpit for political change over the decades?
Was God truly kicked out of government schools that same year as some well-meaning, but ignorant, writers would have us believe? Students in my post-1954 generation prayed every time the words “pop quiz” or “test” were announced.
Like the previous myth, no church has ever lost its tax-exempt status. The only church to ever lose its IRS tax-exempt letter is the Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y.…
Supremes reinforce secularization in government school programs
The U.S. Supreme Court banned the first amendment from government schools Oct. 4. In its refusal to hear an appeal of Stratechuk v. Board of Education, South Orange-Maplewood School District, the high court upheld a ruling that religious songs have no place in public school holiday performances.
School programs may include non-holiday religious music, and holiday religious music may be taught in classrooms.
Michael Stratechuk, the father of two in the school district, claimed the district’s action deprived his children of their rights under the Establishment Clause: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The test used by the District Court in analyzing the Establishment Clause was the Lemon test. This test has its origins in the Supreme Court 1971 case, Lemon v. Kurtzman. The three prongs of the test address whether the government’s action lacks a secular purpose, whether the government action has the principal or primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, and whether the government action involves an excessive entanglement with religion. If any of these prongs are satisfied, the government action violates the Establishment Clause.
Stratechuk’s attorney, Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, claimed the school district was “disapproving…
Supremes reinforce secularization in government school programs
The U.S. Supreme Court banned the first amendment from government schools Oct. 4. In its refusal to hear an appeal of Stratechuk v. Board of Education, South Orange-Maplewood School District, the high court upheld a ruling that religious songs have no place in public school holiday performances.
School programs may include non-holiday religious music, and holiday religious music may be taught in classrooms.
Michael Stratechuk, the father of two in the school district, claimed the district’s action deprived his children of their rights under the Establishment Clause: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
The test used by the District Court in analyzing the Establishment Clause was the Lemon test. This test has its origins in the Supreme Court 1971 case, Lemon v. Kurtzman. The three prongs of the test address whether the government’s action lacks a secular purpose, whether the government action has the principal or primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, and whether the government action involves an excessive entanglement with religion. If any of these prongs are satisfied, the government action violates the Establishment Clause.
Stratechuk’s attorney, Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, claimed the school district was “disapproving…
