You Can Take Government Out of Religion, but…

February 22, 2012 by fidlerten

To finish the title of this article is to remember an old cigarette commercial that anyone who’s old enough to remember cigarette commercials can remember. That brand of cigarette was Salem Cigarettes and the commercial sang a song that went like this:

You can take Salem out of the country but, you can’t take the country out of Salem.

So in this case I refer to religion and government instead of Salem cigarettes and the country. In other words:

You can take Government out of religion but you can’t take religion out of government. It would have been just too long of a title but I hope you get my point. Or I should say – this is what Republicans seems to want us to believe nowadays.

Recently there has been a very heated battle going on between social conservatives and liberals and in that battle, conservatives are insisting that government get out of religion as far as allowing religious institutions to be able to decide to provide certain types of health care if someone’s religion has an ethical problem with it.

At the same time, social conservatives – or actually Republican lawmakers in the federal government along with state governors and legislators are trying to enforce their religious views on government and they want government to intervene with laws to enforce certain religious edicts such as forcing women to have a transvaginal ultra sound in which a probe is inserted into the woman’s vagina. This is a bill poised to be passed in the Virginia legislator and will likely be signed by Republican governor Bob McDonnell.

This is just the latest of legislation being introduced and sometimes passed in state houses by Republican governors and Republican legislators. Several bills across the country have been introduced to try to circumvent a woman’s right to an abortion. This is the first bill of its kind that actually forces a woman to undergo an invasive probe that’s not medically necessary and will not likely be covered by the woman’s insurance.

My own state of Oklahoma passed a law to force a woman to undergo an ultrasound but not an invasive one. That law was overturned by a state judge.

It would seem that Republicans would like to have their cake and eat it too by pushing laws that are obviously meant to enforce their own religious beliefs on the general electorate by passing laws that govern what a woman can do with her own body when it comes to abortions and to restrict gays from being able to marry but they also want government to stay out of religious organizations, such as the current contraception fight that was started by the Catholic church but continues to play out in Congress by Republican lawmakers.

So let’s be clear; they want government to stay out of religious organizations but they want religion injected into government laws.  It would seem that Republicans are working to destroy the wall that exist between government and religion but at the same time, demand that government stay out of religion. It would make one to ask: what exactly does Republicans want?

Republicans seem to want to have a theocracy in which our government is controlled by the religious moral beliefs of the Religious Right and yet also protect that same Religious Right from government interference.  What about the religious rights of those who don’t believe like the Religious Right; are their rights to be overruled by a group that seems to have so much sway over the Republican Party?

The same group that wishes to impose its moral beliefs on the rest of the country, which is mostly made up of Evangelicals is also concerned that our government will be influenced by Sharia Law or Islamic Law. My own state of Oklahoma passed a law back in the 2008 General Election to bar courts from considering Sharia Law or international law when deciding cases. This is the same Sharia Law that the Taliban used when they ruled Afghanistan in which women basically had no rights. It would seem to me that this country’s laws are being intruded upon by the same type of laws that restrict women’s rights.

I would suggest that our Republican lawmakers make up their mind; if they want government to stay out of religion; then also expect religion to stay out of government.

Related articles

• Contraception Fight: Religious Freedom or Religious Domination? (fidlerten.com)
• Too Sooner For Sharia? Tenth Circuit Rules Against Oklahoma’s Anti-Sharia Law (jonathanturley.org)
• John Holbo: Republicans Going All-in Against Contraception Watch (delong.typepad.com)
• Republicans Push For the Supremacy of Religious Law (polentical.com)
• Christians ‘aren’t above the law’ – Equalities Commission (kiwianglo.wordpress.com)
• The Campaign Against Sharia in America Heats Up (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• Tenth Circuit Says Oklahoma Anti-Sharia Law Is Likely Unconstitutional (volokh.com)
• If a Muslim-American Organization Attacks ALAC then it’s Un-American (oneway2day.wordpress.com)
• They Call This Bunk Sharia (socyberty.com)
• Democrat hypocrisy and sharia (creepingsharia.wordpress.com)

Filed under: Abortion Rights, contraception, fidlerten, Gay Issues, Religion, Women's Rights Tagged: Bob McDonnell, contraception, gay rights, religion, Sharia Law, Taliban