Separation of State and Church
by Tom Buchanan  07/31/03

It seems as though the phrase 'thus building a wall of separation between church and state' penned by Thomas Jefferson's a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802 has been getting a lot of one-sided attention lately. The left has been using it to eradicate any and all references to God from our culture.

There are, however, two sides to this wall of separation. One is taking religion out of government and the other, much less talked about, is taking government out of religion. It is time we demanded that government be removed from religion with the same vigor that religion is being removed from government.

In the past, religious organizations initiated charitable undertakings. The poor were feed and clothed by various religious denominations. Orphanages that took in America's abandoned children were mostly religious. Then along came government intervention with food stamps and welfare and a we'll pay your rent attitude. Slowly the role of charitable church operations have been pushed aside by big brother's willingness to take care of us from cradle to grave. In fact, religious organizations would be hard pressed to perform the acts of charity as in days gone by. It would be too much of an inconvenience to help the poor, after all that's what government is for.

The way we are taxed, by our income is plain immoral. Churches are sucked into the black hole of forming a corporation with the very government that is suppose to be separated by some sort of wall. Where is that wall when you need it. Yes, we will allow you to be a tax deductible organization as long as you play by our rules.

Now that the government has a Faith-Based and Community Initiative there is little need for religious organizations. The government will classify, slice and dice and ordain whatever organizations it deems worthy to wave the 'Faith-Based' banner. You better believe that being politically correct with be on the top of the list of requirements. Our federal government will now dole out our hard earned cash to take care of the poor, the drug addicts, the alcoholics, the homeless, the at-risk youth, elders in need and prisoners.

As time passes more of the working poor, those that don't qualify for a government handout will be sucked in to the hole of the poor huddled masses creating a need for the expansion of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. There will be a time, in the not-so-distant future that the whole system will collapse. It will be then that we will be praying to the real God who presides over the universe instead of the government gods living in Washington DC.

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