WCMessenger.com: Understanding the first ammendment

In Ken Hughes' predictable style of ranting, he has named religious people tied to McCain as a danger to the United States and our Constitution.

First, he mentioned John Hagee, who actually doesn't rave as Mr. Hughes accuses him.

I don't agree with John Hagee's particular form of dispensationalism, but other than that, he is within the pale or orthodoxy in Christendom.

Then Mr. Hughes mentions a group called, alternately, The Foundation or The Fellowship.

Mr. Hughes accuses this group of harboring "ideas, wishes and plans that are far more outrageous, anti-American, anti-liberty and anti-about everything in the U.S. Constitution."

I did the simple Google search that Mr. Hughes suggested. I found that neither John Hagee, nor the Foundation was guilty of the accusation slung at them.

I also found that there are a vast number of Google search results for the terms Foundation and Fellowship which are unrelated to the group in question.

Perhaps Mr. Hughes could be so kind as to provide a URL address for the information he wants us to know.

Ken Hughes also speaks of a return to that old ideology, tried, tested and found true things that have worked so well for so long.

Part of the old ideology was the freedom for all to practice their religion, or practice none, though in the formative years of this nation, a man who did not attend some service was considered suspect.

Another part of the old ideology tore this nation in two, resulting in The Civil War. One result of that war was the freeing of the slaves. The leaders of the anti-slavery movement were Christians.

There is no "wall of separation" in the Constitution between government and religion.

What there is is a prohibition against Congress passing any law regarding the establishment of religion; which in mind was an official state church like the colonists came to escape.

The term "Wall of Separation" was first used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in Connecticut, assuring them that the government had no power over any church in this nation, and that no Official State Church was to be established.

My last word on this is that every Christian has a right to petition the government for redress of grievance, just as any other citizen does; and that we are free to vote and be active in politics. To deny Christians those rights would be to make us second class citizens.

Gary Jeffryes
Paradise