{"id":129328,"date":"2016-01-02T17:56:14","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T00:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/02\/not-surprisingly-scalia-thinks-the-government-should-support-religion.html"},"modified":"2016-01-02T17:56:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T00:56:14","slug":"not-surprisingly-scalia-thinks-the-government-should-support-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/02\/not-surprisingly-scalia-thinks-the-government-should-support-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Not surprisingly, Scalia thinks the Government should support religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a speech at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made it very clear his feeling that the Constitutional guarantee of Freedom of Religion doesn't mean Freedom from<\/i> Religion, and that the US government traditionally has and should<\/i> support "religious principles" over non-religious or secular principles. <\/p>\n

Should the government should stay out of supporting religion in general? Scalia said, "To tell you the truth there is no place for that in our constitutional tradition. Where did that come from? To be sure, you can't favor one denomination over another but can't favor religion over non-religion?"<\/p>\n

If people want the government to be neutral about the idea of religion itself, they should have a vote about it. "Don't cram it down the throats of an American people that has always honored God on the pretext that the Constitution requires it."<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.nola.com\/politics\/index.ssf\/2016\/01\/government_can_should_support.html<\/a>
http:\/\/hosted.ap.org\/dynamic\/stories\/U\/US_SCALIA_RELIGION_SPEECH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-02-15-30-00<\/a><\/p>\n

Scalia's speech, of course, is itself a perfect example of why government neutrality about religion is<\/i> so important. It puts the traditions of a nebulous "American people" above the rights of individual Americans. It assumes that a the government can actually choose a way to "honor God" or "favor religion" that even reflects the beliefs of all theistic citizens, not just the local majority; even when couched in non-denominational phrases, such governmental actions almost always reflect a general Christian theism (including Scalia's own reference to God in the speech as a singular male). <\/p>\n

Speaking about religion or in religious terms is one thing. A President (or, heck, a Justice) can express their own religious beliefs, even speak about faith or publicly ask for God's blessing as they personally wish. But that's quite different from acting institutionally<\/i> for religious purposes, or funding religious organizations to do religious things with taxpayer money. As soon as the government starts doing things in the name of God or on behalf of God or to "honor" God, it's establishing religion, even a vague American Christianity, in a way that clearly contradicts the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

That people a century or two ago might not have agreed with that doesn't mean it isn't so, with all due respect to Justice Scalia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a speech at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie, Louisiana, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made it very clear his feeling that the Constitutional guarantee of Freedom of Religion doesn't mean Freedom from Religion, and that the US government traditionally has and should support "religious principles" over non-religious or secular principles. Should the government … Continue reading “Not surprisingly, Scalia thinks the Government should support religion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/-335ff278a52421bb5B15D.JPGimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45647,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/03\/religious-freedom-and-justice-scalia.html","url_meta":{"origin":129328,"position":0},"title":"Religious freedom and Justice Scalia","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Oct-14 10:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While I applaud Justice Scalia for giving at least lip service to a strong divide between church and state, I find his argument that the government can clearly favor religion in general over non-religion to be quite disturbing. (How the government can favor religion in general and not have it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43092,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/17\/scalia-says-if-he-has-to-listen-to-bad-music-you-have-to-listen-to-government-p.html","url_meta":{"origin":129328,"position":1},"title":"Scalia says If he has to listen to bad music, you have to listen to government p…","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Jun-14 11:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"Scalia says If he has to listen to bad music, you have to listen to government prayerOr something like that. Basically, SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia\u00a0equates people being offended by government-sponsored religious activity with his own aesthetic disdain for public performances of Stravinsky -- with the exception that the First Amendment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50202,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/28\/scalia-has-an-odd-understanding-of-the-first-amendment.html","url_meta":{"origin":129328,"position":2},"title":"Scalia has an odd understanding of the First Amendment","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Apr-15 3:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or he's been reading too many Conservative Christian fear mags.As Justice Kagan noted, Jewish rabbis who choose not to marry mixed-religion couples are still licensed by the state to officiate at marriages. Catholic priests are not required to marry non-Catholics, or divorcees. And there are still churches (few and far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130428,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/14\/a-religious-freedom-ruling-that-is-perfectly-right-but-utterly-wrong.html","url_meta":{"origin":129328,"position":3},"title":"A religious freedom ruling that is perfectly right but utterly wrong","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Apr-16 7:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Pastafarianism was established as a satire of religion to show how people wanting to teach Intelligent Design were really kind of near-sighted dolts. As the judge in this case gives, as background:'FSMism is a riposte to intelligent design that began with a letter to the Kansas State Board of Education\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137817,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/14\/the-dire-menace-of-the-lgbtq-religion.html","url_meta":{"origin":129328,"position":4},"title":"The Dire Menace of the LGBTQ Religion","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Feb-19 9:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The article is somewhat lengthy, but it's simultaneously hilarious and appalling, detailing a bill in the Kansas state legislature that basically asserts that LGBTQ is a \"religion\" (a subset of secular humanism, which was deemed a religious faith by SCOTUS in the early 60s), and therefore state law cannot favor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132824,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/10\/defining-who-is-a-true-christian-just-what-we-want-the-government-to-do.html","url_meta":{"origin":129328,"position":5},"title":"Defining Who Is A True Christian — just what we want the government to do!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Feb-17 3:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump's promise to favor Christian refugees from majority-Muslim countries[1] carries with it an ironic challenge: figuring out who the Christians are. Is it enough to just claim to be Christian? Well, that's pretty crappy, security-wise. But if self-identification is not enough, what is? Testimony from other Christians? A signed letter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}