{"id":29163,"date":"2018-04-15T21:45:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T21:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29163"},"modified":"2018-04-15T21:45:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T21:45:39","slug":"separation-of-church-state-need-not-be-written","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29163","title":{"rendered":"‘Separation of church, state’ need not be written"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I cannot let this one pass without offering a brief rejoinder.<\/p>\n

Dave Henry,<\/a> the director of commentary for the Amarillo Globe-News, offered this tidbit in a column Sunday about what is written in the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

His column dealt with myths and other untruths that show up on social media. He writes: The fake \u201cCity of Amarillo\u201d Facebook page reminded AGN that, \u201cThe free press is a cornerstone of democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Is the free press a \u201ccornerstone\u201d of a republic? I hope so, because the word \u201cdemocracy\u201d is nowhere to be found in the U.S. Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, what is actually written in the U.S. Constitution – and what is not – does not matter anymore. For example, \u201cseparation of church and state.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He quibbles correctly about whether the founders created a “democracy” or a “republic.” It was the latter, for certain.<\/p>\n

But then …<\/p>\n

Henry repeats a canard that needs some further explanation. He says the Constitution does not contain the words “separation of church and state.” True. But only as far as it goes.<\/p>\n

What that remark — cited often by conservatives who keep arguing that it’s OK to teach religion in public schools — ignores is that the Constitution implies<\/em> such a separation in its First Amendment. The founders didn’t need to write “separation of church and state” when they declared that Congress shall make no law that establishes a state religion. The prohibition against writing such a law translates quite nicely, in my humble view, to a church-and-state separation.<\/p>\n

What’s more, the federal courts have upheld that standard repeatedly through countless court challenges over the course of, oh, 200 years.<\/em><\/p>\n

I just have grown weary of the tired refrain that the Constitution needs to say something specifically in order to make an issue relevant. Church\/state separation is covered by the nation’s governing document — even if it doesn’t say it in so many words.<\/p>\n\n

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I cannot let this one pass without offering a brief rejoinder. Dave Henry, the director of commentary for the Amarillo Globe-News, offered this tidbit in a column Sunday about what is written in the U.S. Constitution. His column dealt with myths and other untruths that show up on social media. He writes: The fake \u201cCity … Continue reading ‘Separation of church, state’ need not be written<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,15],"tags":[179,5440,1738,5043],"class_list":["post-29163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","category-religious-news","tag-agn-media","tag-church-and-state","tag-first-amendment","tag-us-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29165,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29163\/revisions\/29165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}