No to irrationality

Great letter Matthew! I LOVE it!

"Government is prohibited from establishing a "State" religion and from making laws that prevent people from exercising their religious beliefs. It DOES NOT prevent religious people from participating in government." Strawman alert. jchick is at it again. Now no one will convince him/her to use reason as the author of the letter suggests. No one including jefferson has ever argued that religious people should not participate in government except religious people. Some religious groups think that participation in government is to worldly. But chick is trying to sell what only the extreme far-right religious groups try to sell. That government should follow religious law whether it be sharia or old testament. Rev. Emrich, Republican Senate Chief of Staff, Jeramiah Project leader, and Pastor is such a theocrat as jchick is. They wish to imprison all of us in an out-dated, dysfunctional, irrational set of eternally true and immutable laws which they are right no in the process of changing (see Conservapedia project to re-write the bible by removing "liberal" concepts like charity).
No respectable politician or lawyer has every supported jchick's mis-interpretation of the 1st Amendment. This is strictly an invention of a right wing nut who has spent his career inventing quotes from Jefferson and writing books that have to be re-written because fact-checking the book discovers that almost nothing in the book is true. First of all "establishment" here means building (the definition in 1759 and usage then referred to a tavern or building) not "to create" which gives the clause much wider meaning than just create a state religion.
Jon Albrecht Dixfield

"Yes to reason" Absolutely right, which is why the Yes vote carried on election day.
"Reasoning with a liberal is like trying to pick up a turd by the clean end. " Pirate

The parrot noticed that Mr. Pettingill used the word "I" eleven times. Also, that he was disturbed by too many things. Attitude adjustment is in order. The votes have been counted, Yes on 1 won. Let's move on.

2Co 7:1
Paul exhorts the Corinthians to purity of life
1 Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

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You must have missed the comments from No on 1. From vocalizing hopes that only once the elderly are gone that homosexuality will be accepted, to the the continuous use of the term bigot, and assumptions and finger pointing, the No on 1 people behaved no better.

Marriage is not a civil right.

And you will not find the phrase "separation of church and state" anywhere in our founding documents. It is a phrase Thomas Jefferson used to assure people that the government had no authority to tell people what to believe.

The first amendment begins: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"

Government is prohibited from establishing a "State" religion and from making laws that prevent people from exercising their religious beliefs. It DOES NOT prevent religious people from participating in government.

John A. Chick

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (January 6, 1816)

Fear has historically been an integral part of religion. By the application of fear, Churches have been able to abuse power, manipulate behavior, coerce the transfer of wealth from both poor and rich to its own coffers, and psychologically harm untold millions of unwitting and susceptible victims.

I can't imagine that this is what a loving God intended.
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When I was a young Sailor - I drank like a Sailor, fought like a Sailor, and screwed like a Sailor. Now that I am old and wise - I have a few scars, but many fond memories.