RTP-area local music and culture

[Duncan Murrell <dvmurrell AT nc.rr.com>]

On Nov 11, 2004, at 11:29 PM, Chris Rossi wrote:
> >
> It seems to me that the intelligent way to sell seperation of church 
> and state is to not stress so much the freedom of the state from 
> religion, but the freedom of religion from the state.  Do folks really 
> want the gummint telling them how to worship?  It seems like even the 
> not so brilliant would be able to see that even amongst christianity 
> there's no real consensus on how it ought to be practiced and what 
> exactly jesus thinks it is we all should do.  It always seemed obvious 
> to me growing up that seperation of church and state was primarily to 
> protect religion.  Large chunks of New England were founded by 
> followers of weird ass sects of Christianity that were persecuted in 
> England where the state religion was a different weird ass sect of 
> Christianity.  The beauty of the secular state is it allows us all to 
> live and work together regardless of what we call God.  That doesn't 
> seem like too sophisticated a concept to me.  Normal people ought to 
> be able to grok that.
>
> rossi

It's funny you should mention it, because one of the country's more 
conservative Protestant sects -- Seventh Day Adventists -- publish a 
magazine called "Liberty", to which I subscribe. The magazine runs, 
issue after issue, vigorous and reasoned arguments for the separation 
of church and state, _specifically_ from a desire to be free from 
government. This is a magazine aimed at the general reader, 
specifically members of the church, and so it doesn't fall into 
academic speak or legalese very often. Judge Roy Moore was roundly 
criticized in the magazine, for instance. They've also got their eye on 
instances of what the editors think are free-exercise issues -- such as 
the government banning prayer from places they think it ought to be 
allowed, as long as it isn't coerced prayer. All of this derives from 
their particular theology, specifically their understanding of the End 
Times, a small part of which involves government coercion in  religion. 
So they want no part of it.

Pick it up some time to see how conservative Christians talk when 
they're talking about _strengthening_ the wall between church and 
state.

d