I love getting to wear my "I voted" sticker on election days.
Not so long ago (as ages go) I would not have had the option to vote. If I lived in another country, odds are I still would not have that option what with being female and all.
I enjoy being a girl. Since I live here and now, I can be a girl AND vote.
Awesome!
There are people who would like for that opportunity to be taken away from me.
Sometimes, I would like to give them a good slap across the face.
But that would not be a very Christian thing to do.
Therein lies our problem.
They don't want me to vote because I am religious. I shouldn't slap them across the face because I am religious and subscribe to the "turn the other cheek" belief.
"Now, that's what you call ironic."
People who define the term separation of church and state in the extreme-not-what-it-means way, would have me not vote because my religious beliefs lead me to support things they'd like to see dead and vote against things they think the world would be better off with. They see that as a church infiltration of state.
First off, separation of church and state is a paraphrased statement from the great Thomas Jefferson and is not in the US Constitution.
Technicalities aside, it does not mean any person with any belief that was found in any church is not allowed to have said belief affect their vote. I sure wish people would stop defining it that way.
Because, by golly, I LOVE to vote! I'd hate to be barred from it because of my beliefs or my gender or anything about me. That would be totally against the idea of voting!
"Let's hear what the people want us to do, but only the men. Who think only this certain way, we don't want religion making a mess of things. And they must have this certain type of job to vote. And make this much money. And own this much property. Yes, that will give us a clear picture of what we should do."
Reeee-diculous. And yet, it's been seen many times in this ol' world of ours.
I'm so thankful to live in a time and place where I am allowed to vote. It's very exhilarating...even when candidates win elections I'd rather they lose and propositions pass that I'd rather not. Voting is such a great privilege.
1 comment:
You are correct that separation of church and state does not prevent citizens from making decisions and voicing opinions based on principles derived from their religions. Moreover, the religious beliefs of government officials naturally may inform their decisions on policies. In this context, the principle of separation of church and state merely constrains government officials not to make decisions with the predominant purpose or primary effect of advancing religion; in other words, the predominant purpose and primary effect must be nonreligious or secular in nature. A decision coinciding with religious views is not invalid for that reason as long as it has a secular purpose and effect.
Wake Forest University recently published a short, objective Q&A primer on the current law of separation of church and state--as applied by the courts rather than as caricatured in the blogosphere. I commend it to you. http://tiny.cc/6nnnx
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