Why America can NEVER Have an Official Religion

With the dangerous rise of “Christian” Nationalism in the United States I suppose there are going to be more and more yahoos yammering about how the US is supposed to be a Christian country.

The first problem with that idea is that it can’t be true unless we throw out the Constitution.
Which is a pretty serious problem, you have to admit!
The very first clause in the very first amendment of the Bill of Rights says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...”

Obviously, if Congress cannot make any law respecting an establishment of religion, then our national government cannot make one religion the “official” religion for the country.
And if our government cannot make one religion the official religion for the country then what does it even mean to say that we are supposed to have a Christian nation?

If it just means that lots of Americans are Christians then that is fine.
Americans can belong to any religion they choose.
But if it means the government is supposed to establish, or protect, or promote, one religion, or one religion’s doctrines, over others, that is WRONG, and that is a direct violation of our Constitution.

Now, it is true that some STATES had established religions at the time the Constitution was ratified.
This was a holdover from colonial times when, often, there was very little freedom of religion in the United States.
(Massachusetts Puritans used to hang Quakers on Boston Common after all!)

{This looks like a great history of religious freedom in America.
Let's read it! If you beat me to it please leave a comment to let me know what you thought of it.
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The Constitution of 1789 was a fresh start for America in many ways, not least of which was by providing a guarantee that the new Federal government would not meddle in religious matters, or elevate one religion to a preferred status over others.

The fact that states could still have established religions was a serious gap, though.
What good is talking about freedom of religion if states can take it away from you?
To be fair, most states had protections for freedom of religion in their own state constitutions and state laws, it is just that the Federal government had no authority to FORCE states to respect freedom of religion if they decided to go rogue and start hanging Quakers again….
Or forcing people to go to church on a certain day of the week.
Or killing witches.
Or whatever.

Fortunately for freedom, when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868, the Federal government was given important new powers over the states.
The Supreme Court used those new powers in a 1947 case called Everson v. Board of Education to apply the establishment clause of the First Amendment to state and local governments.

From the very beginning of the United States the Constitution has guaranteed that there cannot be a NATIONAL religion.
Since 1947 the Federal government has also guaranteed that there cannot be any STATE, or COUNTY, or CITY, or TOWN religions either.

So, if you hear someone saying that anyone in the United States can be a Christian, or even that everyone in the United States can be a Christian - if that is what they choose - that is absolutely true.
But if you hear some yammering yahoo saying that the United States is supposed to be a Christian NATION that is absolutely false.

Please remind people with such dangerous ideas of the very first clause of the very first amendment of the Bill of Rights which says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...”

Thank you!

Wikipedia has some good information on the establishment clause here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Establishment_Clause

***

{This looks like a great history of religious freedom in America.
Let's read it! If you beat me to it please leave a comment to let me know what you thought of it.
https://amzn.to/3UQA9gY}

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

"Trump asked me to put him over the Constitution." - Mike Pence

You don’t really know what someone is like unless you spend time with them, work with them maybe. If you can’t spend time with someone then the only way you can know them is by listening to other people who DID spend time with them.

If we really want to know Trump, for example, we could listen to his 2016 running mate who then served as his Vice President for four years, Mike Pence. There can’t be many people who know Trump better than Mike Pence does.

So, what does Mike Pence think about Trump?

In September 2023 Pence gave a speech where he discussed the political philosophy of Trump and his imitators in the Republican party. He said, “The growing faction would substitute our faith in limited government and traditional values with an agenda stitched together by little else than personal grievances and performative outrage.”

Pence knows that Trump and his followers are not true conservatives who believe in “limited government” and “traditional values.” Instead of campaigning on these principles, Pence reminds us, Trump and his cronies whip up their crowds with “personal grievances” and “performative outrage.”

We know that Pence is right about Trump not believing in limited government. Trump has claimed that a president should have breathtaking powers, extending all the way to assassinating political rivals with impunity. There is nothing limited about the powers Trump wants for himself and his government. He wants the power of life and death over American citizens just like any ancient despot or any medieval king claiming divine right demanded for himself.

Remember what Trump said in a speech to conservative students in July 2019? "Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president, but I don't even talk about that." It would be good if Trump did NOT talk about Article II of the Constitution because that does NOT say the president can do whatever he wants. But that is what Trump WISHES that it said, because Trump does not believe in limited government as long as HE is the one in power.

Just as Mike Pence has warned us.

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Pence is also correct when he warns us that Trump does not believe in traditional values. Any one who has been found liable in courts of law for sexual abuse, repeated defamation of his sexual abuse victim, and years of business fraud, certainly does not believe in traditional values.

And anyone who doesn’t believe Mike Pence when he says Trump’s campaign is driven by personal grievances only has to listen to the ex-president for five minutes. There is currently no one in America - over three years of age - who whines and complains more about how unfair everyone is to him than Trump does. He is a billionaire and a former president who loves insulting people and calling them names, but isn’t it so terrible how people can be so mean to HIM?

Mike Pence knows Trump very well. He knows Trump is NOT a conservative, does NOT believe in traditional values, and seems to be able to whine just about non-stop for 20 hours per day.

This link here will take you to these observations of Mike Pence about his former boss.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/mike-pence-goes-trump-imitators-shift-gops-roots-rcna103743

But there are far worse things about Trump than his lack of conservatism, his lack of respect for traditional values, and his unbearable, endless, infantile whininess….

At a Gridiron Dinner Mike Pence said: “President Trump was wrong. I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

There are a couple of really shocking points made in this quote.

First of all, Mike Pence is telling us straight out that Trump wanted to overturn the 2020 election. There may be Trump supporters who refuse to believe that Trump wanted to overturn an American election, there may even be Trump supporters who are so far lost to what America stands for that they don’t even care about elections anymore, but Mike Pence KNOWS Trump tried to overturn that election, and Mike Pence is still American enough to know that was WRONG.

Secondly, Mike Pence is telling us here that it was Trump who was responsible for the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Mike Pence knows it was Trump’s “reckless” words that inflamed a mob to attack the Capitol of the United States of America. Trump supporters can pretend that Trump did not whip that angry crowd into a fighting frenzy, or maybe some Trump supporters are so lost to what America stands for that they no longer even care if their political leader inspires violence, but Mike Pence knows it was Trump who put his own Vice President and his Vice President’s family in danger on that shameful day.

Here is a link to Mike Pence telling America that Trump wanted an American election overturned and then inspired an attack on the American Capitol.
https://apnews.com/article/pence-trump-january-6-capitol-riot-carlson-1e38cb44d55737031ca528b4f33aa1fb

And for people who think that maybe, in spite of all his despicable flaws, somehow, deep down inside, Trump really does respect our American Constitution, here Mike Pence drives the nail into that coffin by telling us what Trump really wanted on January 6, 2021.

According to Mike Pence, “The American people deserve to know that President Trump and his advisers didn't just ask me to pause. They asked me to reject votes, return votes, essentially to overturn the election," and "On that day, President Trump asked me to put him over the Constitution. But I chose the Constitution and I always will.”

That lays it out as clear as day, doesn’t it? Trump wanted the 2020 election overturned and he wanted the Vice President to put Trump’s desires above the Constitution. On January 6, 2021 Trump tried to carry out a coup d’etat and seize illegitimate power in the United States of America. It is probably ONLY because of Vice President Mike Pence that Trump’s evil schemes failed.

Here is the link where Mike Pence tells us that, if Trump cares about the Constitution at all, he certainly doesn’t care about it as much as he cares for himself.
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/02/pence-trump-jan-6-indictment-lawyers

Mike Pence has known and worked with Trump for years. He certainly knows Trump better than any of us who only see him on TV. He has warned us over and over again that Trump is a bad and dangerous man who should never be president again.

I hope enough Americans will heed the warning!

***

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***

Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

An American Citizen Tries to Understand the Border Crisis

I feel like American citizens should be able to understand the problem at the Southern border and asylum law and stuff like that.
I hope that is true.
Let's give it a try and do the best we can!

The material in this blog post was written when it looked like there might be, just possibly, a deal for a new border law in Congress.
Later, of course, that deal fell through.
Anyway, that's when this was written, when it looked like there might be a deal.

***

1

President Joe Biden has been negotiating for weeks with Senate Republicans about getting more tools to deal with the surge of migrants across the southern border.
One thing Biden wants is authority to shut down the border if more than 5000 migrants cross in one day.

Why is Biden asking for authority to shut down the border?
Because currently the law does NOT give the president that authority!
(By the way, states do not have any legal or Constitutional authority to shut down the border either.)
Most people don’t know this, but if anyone says the president should shut down the border now, they are actually saying the president should break the law.
Which is unacceptable.

I have many ideas about what I would try to do at the border if I were president, but in the current situation I hope the Congress will give Biden the tools he needs to manage the border more effectively WITHOUT breaking US asylum law.

Below I will give a reference to current US asylum law as I understand it.
If anyone thinks I am wrong, please give me a reference showing how I am wrong so I can learn.

Here is a link to an article about the border deal many people hoped would happen, until it didn't.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228229591/senate-gop-split-risks-bipartisan-border-deal-as-trump-looms-large

2

Now, here is the law.
We should expect presidents to obey this law, or we should expect Congress to change it.
One or the other.
We should certainly NOT be asking a president, or a state, to break this law.

US Asylum Law: “Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.”

Here is the law for people who want to check it for themselves.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1158

3

And finally, here is some information about keeping asylum seekers in another country while they wait for their asylum hearing in the US.
US asylum law does allow us to have asylum seekers wait in another country, but there are three conditions:

1. The country they are going to stay in has to agree.
2. The country they are going to stay in has to be safe for asylum seekers.
3. The asylum seekers have to be able to get into the US when it is time for their asylum hearings.

Groups like the ACLU say that conditions 2 and 3 were never met, which would mean the remain in Mexico policy was never legal.
There were court cases about these issues since the policy began, but I don't believe these court cases were ever resolved.
Now, since February 2023, Mexico does not agree to keep asylum seekers in Mexico so that is another reason why the remain in Mexico policy would now be illegal, even if it was legal before.

Here is a link to information on Mexico not agreeing to keep asylum seekers in their country.

Mexico Will No Longer Hold Asylum Seekers

4

Personally, I think we should build shelters along the border where we can hold people seeking asylum in a safe and secure place.
Then we should increase the number of immigration judges and staff so the asylum claims can be quickly reviewed.
People who meet the conditions would come into the US and people who do not meet the conditions would go home.

To do this we need Congress to approve funding for the shelters and the additional judges and staff.

More long term, we should see if we can help improve conditions in the countries the migrants are coming from so they would rather stay home. I assume we could do this with mutually beneficial economic deals with those countries. That way, we make money, they make money, and people can have better lives without leaving home.

That’s what I would like to see.

***

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I have not read this book, but maybe it is a good place to learn more about the border crisis.

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***

Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Creeping Dictatorship in the USA

In every free country there are people who would throw freedom away if it means they could be in power.
There are people in the United States right now who would like to live in a dictatorship if it means they could be in power.

I just heard my congressperson Elise Stefanik say she would not have done what Mike Pence did on January 6, 2021.
What did Mike Pence do on January 6?
He counted the electoral votes sent in by the states, as he was required to do BY LAW.

Elise Stefanik is saying she would have broken the law.

But how could Elise justify breaking the law?
She says she thinks there were illegal or unconstitutional violations committed during the 2020 election.
That sounds serious!
Could that be true?
And, if so, what should we do about it?

Obviously, if people think there were illegal or unconstitutional violations during an election they should go to court.
And that is exactly what happened.
The Trump campaign filed about 60 court cases after the 2020 election and NOT ONE of them found evidence of election violations that could have changed the outcome of the election.

Elise Stefanik is saying that she would have ignored 60 court cases that found no evidence of election wrongdoing that could have affected the outcome of the election, and THEN, based only on her wishes, she would have broken the law that requires electoral votes to be counted on Jan. 6.

But WHY would she have done something so extreme?

Because she knew Biden won the election - and she didn’t WANT Biden to win the election.
Trump and his supporters KNEW the electoral votes sent in by the states would give the presidency to Biden.
That’s why they didn’t want those electoral votes counted on January 6 in accordance with the law.
Trump and his supporters KNEW that 60 court cases had failed to find evidence of any outcome-changing fraud during the election.
That’s why they wanted people to ignore those court cases and act on their emotions and desires rather than on the law.

Elise Stefanik said she would not have done what Pence did.
She would have ignored the 60 court cases, she would have broken the law requiring the electoral votes be counted, and she would have done that just because she wanted to keep Trump in power even after she knew he lost the election…

***

Recently Trump has “joked” about wanting to be a dictator and he has seriously argued in court that presidents should have immunity for crimes they commit in office, up to and including political assassinations!
This is not how the leaders of free countries talk.
This is how dictators talk.

Recently a Trump supporter, Senator J.D. Vance, said on TV that if Trump becomes president again, he does not have to obey the Supreme Court.
This would destroy one of the critical checks and balances at the heart of our American system of government.
This is not how honorable Senators of a free country talk.
This is how defenders of dictatorship talk.

Now Elise Stefanik is saying on TV that if she had been in Mike Pence’s place on Jan. 6, 2021, she would have ignored court decisions, ignored the will of the American people, and broken the law to keep Trump in power after he lost the election.
This is not how honorable representatives of a free country talk.
This is how defenders of dictatorship talk.

If the people of America want to preserve our free government, we have to go to the polls every chance we get and defeat dangerous people like Trump, J.D. Vance, and Elise Stefanik.

You can click here to read the article that inspired this blog post. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/02/09/elise-stefanik-vp-hopeful/72532143007/

***

[If you want to support "Anything Smart" just click on book links like the one below to make purchases at Amazon. "Anything Smart" will receive a commission on most items you buy. Thanks!]

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***

Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway