My Reflection

I have really enjoyed writing this blog about separation of church and state. When I first encountered this topic, I never imagined that I would learn so much about it and see how other topics can be related. The debate over abortion is one such debate. Everyone knows about this debate and it's two sides, but I never thought about how it tied into separation of church and state. Through my later blogs, I have acknowledeged the fact that they are related and provided evidence to support this. Another such topic would be the debate over gay marriage. This is a very heated debate that is mostly rooted in religious beliefs. Like the abortion debate, the more I researched, I saw the connection and began to show that in my posts. The final subject that I found to be related to this would be over embryonic stem cell research. Like the other two subjects, this one is also debated over because of many religious beliefs and can be tied into this one large debate. Basically, one thing that I have learned throughout this debate is that church and state is not just one broad subject but actually a complex debate with a lot of different sub-topics. This website is one that is opinionated, but it does bring up good points about the subject and presents essays that you can read about this debate.

With my continued research over this subject, I found some interesting facts about things that I thought I knew all about already. One thing would be the issue of religion in public schools. One thing I didn't know was when the actual court decision was that took prayer out of schools. I had always heard my mom talk about it but never really got all the facts concerning it. I also didn't know that there could be some religious references still in public schools, but it just can't be regulated and the teachers can't try to persuade their students a certain way. This was very interesting to me when I found this out. Learning about the history behind "In God We Trust" being on the coins was also interesting to me. This was one thing that got me wanting to know more about separation of church and state so it was nice to find about the facts about it. Also, the fact that "under God" is in the pledge sparked my interest in this. The reason it did was that the pledge is usually required to be stated by school children and I often questioned this. All of these things that I found out about concerning the subject allowed me to acquire more knowledge over the issue.

In brief, I want to say thank you for taking your time to read over my blog and my several points, it is very appreciated. I have learned so much about this subject that I did not know at the start of my blogs. Also, I think that this has taught me how to express myself casually, but at the same time intellectually. Overall, I think that this blog has allowed me to grow as a thinker and a writer.

My thoughts on the polls

I wanted to take this time to thank you guys for being very responsive on the various polls that I have. This blog is going to go over the different results and is basically asking for your feedback as to why you think that the polls may have a specific outcome. On my first poll, I asked you to vote on whether you think church and state is really separated. The results, surprisingly, were that the majority of you thought that church and state was really NOT seperated. This was surprising to me because I thought that many people would think that these two things were seperated considering the growing diversity in our country. The second poll was whether prayer should be allowed in public schools. Although most of you chose the answer I thought you would choose which was no it shouldn't be, a number of you still chose that it should be in public schools. I thought that this was also surprising considering how people fought to get it out of schools. I would have thought it would have been a big difference between the two results. My question to you, my reader, is why do you think I received these results?

My Implications

As I have stated many times before, this debate of separation of church and state has been going on since the United States received it's independence. The reason I believe this has been such an on-going dispute is because of all the smaller subjects that have been coming up for the past few years. One such debate would be the issue of abortion and making it illegal. You will see in the link provided, that this is a very emotional subject that is mainly driven by people's religious beliefs. This link, though not a very scholarly website, allows you to see how people are really feeling about the issue. Many believe, that if we were to make abortion illegal, it will go against our constitutional rights. Another issue would be the legalization of gay marriage. In a 2003 article done by CNN Bush said that he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman. This fact brings up the issue of seperation of church and state because if he adds this to the constitution, then it will be a violation of many people's rights and, at the same time, show that religion does effect some of the things regarding our government. This would be apparant because although he doesn't come out and say that religion is his reason for this belief, it can be inferred that his religion has some kind of influence in this belief. The final issue is stem-cell research, mainly being the embryonic portion of it. In this article from CNN, Bush states that he vetoed the embryonic stem - cell research bill because "it crossed a moral boundary." Like the issue dealing with gay marriage, it shows that religion still has some effect on the things going on in our country. In brief, as long as thing such as these still are around, the huge topic of separation of church and state will continue to be around.

Is this realistic?

Honestly, this idea will always be that, an "idea". There will always be a disagreement between people regarding religion because of the constantly growing population of America. On top of that, our Country has always had some kind of religious roots within it. The reason for this is, many of our presidents have been Christians, especially the republican candidates. Furthermore, as in history, there will always be debates concerning how our country should be run. Everyone has their own opinions and it's impossible to try to make everyone happy. Lastly, many processes in our government, such as our President's prayer will always be debated. Things such as this suggest that our country is mostly Christian, and those who aren't often object such things being practiced on a national level. So, in brief, there is honesty no realistic way to make a distinct separation between church and state.

Class Links

With the issue of church and state still going on, there have also been other debates within this larger one dealing with abortion, gay marriage, and aspects of stem-cell research. A fellow blogger of mine has a blog dealing with abortion which is located here. I think that this is a good blog to look at because it raises the many aspects of why some people are for and against abortion. Also, many people are against it for religious reasons and this goes along with the fact they are trying to pass laws making abortion illegal but many believe that this would be a violation of our rights. Another blog is the gay marriage blog which talks about the legalization of it. Like abortion, this is highly debated because if they make it illegal, then they would implementing this law because of religious reasons, not political ones. The final blog is stem-cell research which is also controversial because it has aspects of it that may not be moral to many people that have strong religious beliefs. All of these blogs are highly debated because they raise questions about our government and religion.

Some links for you

The purpose of this blog is to provide you, my reader, with some links that are very useful for this subject and can provide you with some valuable information. To start off, I think that this site is a good one if you just want to look at the overall concept of this debate and see a view that isn't biased. It is also good to learn the history behind it and why it is such a big issue. As I have stated many times before, many people actually believe that the words "separation of church and state" are actually in the constitution when they are actually not. This website is a good site to go to if you want to get the actual facts about this myth. It is somewhat of an opinionated website, but at the same time, it is a good source to see a side of this issue that you may have not seen before.

If you want to learn about the sides of the debate then The Jeremiah Project is a good website to visit. It gives an overall view of the issue and talks about the two sides of the debate (those for separation and those against it). I thought that this was a good website when doing my research to see another side to the issue and see reasons for people's certain position on it. Along with this website, Americans United is also another website that is very opinionated but is still a good source of information. This website is sponsered by those for the separation of church and state and gives good facts to back up there reasoning for their stance.

Finally, the following list of links are good just if you want to learn some more facts about this issue. These websites are filled with interesting facts that you can look at. Some of them are biased but most are not: http://ffrf.org/nontracts/xian.php, http://candst.tripod.com/tnppage/qmadison.htm, http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/ab/ChurchState.asp, http://www.defconamerica.org/our-issues/separation-of-church--state/index.html.

Also, here's a very interesting video I found on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA68TTISRi8

How can we STOP the debate?: My Theory

As I have stated many times before, the issue over the separation of church and state has been debated for more that 50 years. This article talks about this issue extensively. I believe that this is good in getting a feel for this issue and it's history. Seeing the article, it is clear to see that this has been an issue for a long while, so what is needed to bring an end to the debate? My theory on answering this question is that all America needs to do is come to an understanding. By understanding, I mean that everyone has to realize that realistically we can't make everyone happy, but we can basically "agree to disagree." Religion can never be totally "erased" from our government because our country was built by those with religious beliefs and this can be seen in everyday items such as coins. At the same time though, with immigration increasing as the years go by, so will the diversity of religious practices. Because of this, there is no way that the government can force one religion onto the country and this includes prayer in public schools which has become a major part of the debate. This issue was addressed in a previous blog, but to summarize, prayer isn't BANNED from public schools, but it is simply not FORCED onto children.

Along with coming to an understanding, the government has to also take a definite stand on the issue. Often times, it says one thing, but then practices something totally different. By this I mean, our government constantly says that there isn't any religious references within it, but when catastrophes happen such as 9/11, government officials always seem to mention a reference to "God." Also, "God" is still being put in legal documents such as the U.S. codes which were written in 2006. With these contradictory positions on the issue, there is no way the debate can ever be resolved, unless they come to an end and the government becomes consistent with it's position on the debate.

Extreme Christians

Those that are on the side of not having church and state separated are usually those that are known as radical or extreme Christians. They usually want total control over the government. When I say "total control" I mean that they want our country to basically have a regulated religion and that religion would be Christianity. They are known for their crazy preachings and look down on the conservative Christians which do not do things that they do. Their stances on many of the issues such as gay marriage and abortion are all on the opposing side of the issue. When it comes to separation of church and state, they are very strong in their beliefs and often think that the way America is now will make us as a country "doomed to hell". When I think about these people, as a Christian myself, I'm in dis-belief about their stance and many of the things they preach about.