MusclesMcGee says, "As for the other candidates, I can't support someone who is pro-life, pro-prayer in school, or anti-gay."
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In other words, you believe that each and every one of us had no RIGHT to life, until a HUMAN choice was made? Also, you seem to be operating under the illusion that FREEDOM can exist without a moral foundation. Wrong answer.
Anti-gay? Are you serious? This issue would weigh heavily in your voting?
And finally, the grand finale. You say, "Which would I rather lose gun rights or abortion ?" For you to even CONSIDER that question long enough to post it here tells me that you place too little value on the 2nd Amendment.
It appears that you haven't really studied American history, especially the 1st Amendment.
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Amendment I
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for redress of grievances."
1. Words "separation of church and state" are not in the First Amendment.
2. The 90 founding fathers never mentioned even once during the framing of the First Amendment (June 7 - September 25, 1789) a "separation of church and state." (See Congressional Record.)
3. The same day Congress passed the First Amendment (Sept. 25, 1789); they approved a resolution requesting President George Washington to proclaim "...a day of public thanksgiving and prayer...."
4. Thomas Jefferson wrote this phrase, "thus building a wall of separation between church and State...." on January 1, 1802, (11 years after the First Amendment was ratified) in a private letter to the Danbury Baptist Association to assure them that the federal government could not and would not try to establish a national denomination. Jefferson was an ambassador in France during the time of the Constitutional Convention. However, while President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson was
also made president of the Washington, DC public school system in which he placed the Bible and the Isaac Watt's hymnal as the two primary reading texts! Jefferson's phrase was used only twice by the U.S. Supreme Court from 1802 to 1947; and it was not until 1947 (Everson case) that it was taken out of context and given a meaning never intended (first use was 1878 in Reynolds case).
"In matters of religion, I have considered that its free exercise is placed by the Constitution independent
of the powers of the General [federal] Government."
(Thomas Jefferson, 1805, in his second Inaugural Address.)
"There is not a shadow of right in the general [federal] government to intermeddle with religion....This
subject is, for the honor of America, perfectly free and unshackled."
(The Writings of James Madison, Vol. 5, pp. 176, 132.)
5. Applies to Congress, not the states.
6. First English language Bible printed in America was by Congress in 1782 "for use of schools."
7. The founding fathers gave speeches, read from the Bible, and prayed at public school graduations.
8. The U.S. Capitol was used as a church building by the founding fathers.
9. Founding father judges had prayer in their court rooms with the jurors.
10. A view from the Washington Monument forms a perfect cross.
Northwest Ordinance
(requirements for statehood).
SECTION 13, ARTICLE III
"Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
(Passed from July 17 - August 7, 1789; during the midst of the framing of the First Amendment, which was June 7 - September 25, 1789. Please note that the founding fathers used the word religion to mean Christianity.)
AHM1776
"Religion is the only solid basis of good morals; therefore education should teach the precepts of religion, and the duties of man towards God."
(Gouverneur Morris, 1792, Notes on the Form of a Constitution for France.)
Founding father who physically wrote the Constitution, and most active member of Constitutional Convention, spoke 173 times on the floor.