Senate Resolution 483Filed Under: Atheism, Political, Religion

It is very often that people must be reminded of what exactly were the intentions and the goals of the founding fathers of America and the constitution that they wrote. People often say, “Well, America is a Christian Nation,” such piece of sheer ignorance does not even deserve a response. But considering this is a blog, and the entire point is to respond, it will get a short one. And so will this new piece of filth proposed by Sam Brownback, Senate Resolution 483.

America is NOT a Christian nation, nor was it ever intended to be. There is not a single mention of “god” or “Christianity” or “Jesus” throughout the entire U.S. constitution. The only mentions of religion are meant to exclude religion from the public arena, as it states “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust” and “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Surely, there is no room for interpretation here. It clearly states what position religion holds in government (absolutely none whatsoever). It is quite possibly the greatest achievement of the Founding Fathers, as we have entirely avoided the sort of mayhem religion causes. One needs only to glance over the history of Europe or the current politics of the Middle East to understand why religion and god must be kept separate from government and politics. Hopefully we have this now established and can move onto this “Senate Resolution 483.”

Here is the: Full Text of Senate Resolution 483 as proposed by Sam Brownback and co-sponsored by Joe Lieberman.

What this resolution proposes is that, the first week of May 2008 be recognized as “Ten Commandments Weekend.” I must now propose that this resolution is unconstitutional at its very core. The Ten Commandments hold power only over the Abrahamic Religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). They simply do not apply to any other religions, so it is therefore established this resolution is indeed “respecting an establishment of religion.”

Further, in (Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971), the Surpreme Court established a 3 part “test” that determines whether a law is in violation to the 1st Amendment’s religion clauses.

1. A law must have a secular purpose.
2. It must have a primary effect which neither advances nor inhibits religion.
3. It must avoid excessive entanglement of church and state.

If you put Sen.Res 483 through this simple test of unconstitutionality, it fails on every single step. Firstly, it serves no secular purpose whatsoever. It’s primary effect is to advance the Abrahamic religions. And it does not avoid excessive entanglement between Church and State.

Senate Resolution 483 is therefore unconstitutional going on both the words of the Founding Fathers, and the Supreme Court in 1971 when they established their “Lemon Test.”

I must urge you to write to your Senators and Representatives in Congress and make sure this Resolution does NOT get through.

Tags: Atheism, constitution, law, senate