{"id":26776,"date":"2012-03-01T08:37:35","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T15:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/01\/the-separation-of-church-and-state-protects-the-church-too.html"},"modified":"2012-03-08T09:58:38","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T16:58:38","slug":"the-separation-of-church-and-state-protects-the-church-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/01\/the-separation-of-church-and-state-protects-the-church-too.html","title":{"rendered":"The separation of church and state protects the church, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because as the rude, nasty, threatening aftermath of the Jessica Ahlquist case shows, the Cranston West prayer banner was not about thoughtful prayer and faithful consideration of the words of Jesus (or even of the banner itself), but about a tribal flag.<\/p>\n

"This is what happens when religion is established and made official. This is what<\/i> always happens when religion is established and made official. The privileges that arise from being the official, established sect become the entire substance of that sect. The defense of that privilege replaces every other purpose, meaning or reason for existence until it is all that is left."<\/i><\/p>\n

I say it again: the worst thing that ever happened to Christianity was its adoption by Constantine as the state religion. That folks continue to want it as a state religion says more about what religion means to them than about what Christ taught. #ddtb<\/p>\n

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Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tslacktivist \u00bb How establishment corrupts religion: A case study<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJessica Ahlquist was right. The sectarian banner that hung at Cranston West High School in Cranston, Rhode Island, should not have been there. Its presence there was both unjust and illegal. And, bein…\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because as the rude, nasty, threatening aftermath of the Jessica Ahlquist case shows, the Cranston West prayer banner was not about thoughtful prayer and faithful consideration of the words of Jesus (or even of the banner itself), but about a tribal flag. "This is what happens when religion is established and made official. This is … Continue reading “The separation of church and state protects the church, too”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,109],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-26776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-church-state","tag-ddtb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":50096,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/16\/on-denominations-and-non-denominations.html","url_meta":{"origin":26776,"position":0},"title":"On denominations and non-denominations","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Apr-15 10:54am","format":false,"excerpt":"The rise of non-denominational churches in the US seems to continue, as specific Protestant denominations both traditional (like my own Episcopal) and evangelical continue to shrink and shatter. Only the Catholics seem to be keeping up their numbers, and much of that is from immigration.This article, from a few years\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":51833,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/24\/a-georgia-preacher-in-secular-scandinavia.html","url_meta":{"origin":26776,"position":1},"title":"A Georgia Preacher in Secular Scandinavia","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Jul-15 2:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The video is worth watching, if only to see the huge cognitive divide here (\"Wow!\"), but +George Wiman's specific comments are just as important: folk who look toward a greater mingling of church and state in our own nation always seem to do so with the assumption that the church\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":41908,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/02\/and-heres-another-reason-why-a-national-day-of-prayer-is-a-bad-idea.html","url_meta":{"origin":26776,"position":2},"title":"And here's another reason why a National Day of Prayer is a bad idea","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 2-May-14 6:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"You get folks like James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, turning it into official speechifying against the President, railing against him as \"the abortion president\" and the evils of the government funding Planned Parenthood and the ACA and\u00a0mandates to pay for abortion for abortions, and\u00a0reading aloud an open\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":129677,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/08\/the-evolving-demographics-of-world-religion.html","url_meta":{"origin":26776,"position":3},"title":"The evolving demographics of world religion","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Feb-16 1:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Making predictions based solely on population changes is a dangerous game, since other factors can intervene, but it's one of the few games we have. Based on birth rates in various communities and shifting world demographics ...... By 2050, Muslims are expected to be close to the same proportion of\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":1143,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/10\/church_of_yoda.html","url_meta":{"origin":26776,"position":4},"title":"Church of Yoda","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 10-Oct-01 6:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Reverend Toop, meet Jedi Master Dag Winru\" Based on an e-mail campaign, enough folks in the UK census listed \"Jedi Knight\" as the religion to get it listed on the...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4780,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/06\/symbolic.html","url_meta":{"origin":26776,"position":5},"title":"Symbolic","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Jan-04 2:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yet another indication of the -- well, I won't say trouble, but I will say complications -- you get into when the government interacts with religion. As a veteran, the...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26776","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=26776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}