How the Republicans Stole Christmas (Electronic book text)

1. SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Read them again. Those sixteen words, inspired by Thomas Jefferson and written by James Madison, represent both America's greatest invention and her greatest strength. They establish the only thing really new in the United States Constitution: the separation of church and state. Despite all its monarchial faults, Great Britain had already introduced a limited executive, a bicameral legislature, and three distinct branches of government, each operating within a system of checks and balances. What was original to the Constitution--what constituted our unique American experiment--was a ban on any official state religion: keeping the state out of the church's business and, just as important, keeping the church out of the state's business. It is our gift to the civilized world. Sixteen words. Now read them one more time--and weep. We have never strayed so far from the noble ideals of Founding Fathers James Madison and Thomas Jefferson as we have today. *The current president of the United States told friends that God wanted him to run for president, God wanted him in the White House, and God wanted him to invade Iraq. *Bush opened an office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House and handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants--known in Washington as "pork for preachers." Almost all of it has gone directly to conservative Christian churches. *Bush signed an executive order allowing churches that receive federal funds for so-called faith-based programs to practice religious discrimination: hiring as staff members only those who belong to the same church. *Bush proposed a school voucher program, which would give parents federal tax dollars to use to pay tuition to private, religious schools. *The Bush administration approved a federally funded health plan for Catholics only; it excludes insurance coverage for contraceptives, abortion, sterilization, or artificial insemination. *Bush instituted a "religious test" for judges, promising to appoint only "commonsense judges who understand that our rights were derived from God." *Under Bush, employees in the White House, the Justice Department, and other federal agencies are under pressure to begin their workday by attending "voluntary" Bible study and prayer sessions. *In March 2005, Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) organized a course on Catholic doctrine for Republican Catholic members of Congress. Classes were taught by a priest in Santorum's capitol office. *In a direct slap at Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, House Republicans introduced the Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act, which would allow churches to endorse political candidates, broadcast issue ads, and engage in political fund-raising--without losing their tax-exempt status. (So far, it has not been voted out of committee.) *In Alabama, Roy Moore, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, planted a 2.5 ton monument to the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the courthouse--and refused to move it under court orders. Nowhere, of course, was the religious right's ownership of the Republican Party more on display than in the case of Terri Schiavo. While the vast majority of Americans opposed any government intervention, hard-core fundamentalists demanded that Congress act in order to keep the brain-dead woman artificially alive (for another fifteen years?). Republicans, led by George W. Bush, Bill Frist, and Tom DeLay, dutifully obeyed and, in so doing, undermined everything the Republican Party previously stood for. Without one single legislative hearing, they enacted emergency, special-interest legislation that applied to only one person, expanded the reach