Advocates for the separation of church and state are acting swiftly to scuttle a plan by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R) to flood the state’s 99 courthouses with praying, Bible-reading Christians activists for four days…. Branstad issued a proclamation earlier this year calling on Iowans to participate in a statewide Bible reading marathon from June 30th to July 3rd that will be held in front of all 99 courthouses in the state simultaneously. Christian preachers and activists are planning to lead rounds of prayer and Scripture readings — some as frequently as every 15 minutes — as regular Iowans attempt to pay their speeding tickets, finalize their divorces and obtain permits and licenses. The rallies are being coordinated by a number of Christian groups including the Iowa Prayer Caucus, the National Governor’s Prayer Team and the United States Prayer Council. In his proclamation, the governor urged Iowans to “read through the Bible on a daily basis each year until the Lord comes.”
Contrary to what American Taliban stalwarts like Gov. Branstad may believe, America is NOT a Christian nation, rather a secular nation with a Christian minority. That’s no small distinction, by the way. The Founding Fathers understood the perils posed by allowing the admixture of religion and government to proliferate. History is replete with examples illustrating the truth that when religion and government become indistinguishable, liberty and personal freedom suffer greatly.
Eager as they were to maintain the boundary between God and government, the Founding Fathers established what became known as the separation of Church and State. While those exact words do not appear in the Constitution (an argument frequently made by Conservatives), there’s ample precedent to firmly establish the concept as the foundation of American governance. (If you’re curious, Google the Treaty of Tripoli or Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists)
What Gov. Branstad, evidently a card-carrying charter member of the American Taliban, is doing is blatantly, knowingly, and deliberately unconstitutional. The separation of Church and State is a basic constitutional concept, one that no one in public office could credibly pretend to be ignorant of.
The Des Moines Register reported that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and the group Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers have roundly condemned the action as a high-handed attempt to establish Christianity as the official religion of the state government. The plan, they say, is a direct violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
That it’s even necessary for these groups to protest is an indication of the calculated depravity of Gov. Branstad, who’s by no means a stupid man. He understands the power of faith among Conservatives in Iowa, and he’s burnishing his political bona fides by pandering to them. His proclamation is one of the most egregious, shameless abrogations of the separation of Church and State I’ve run across. He knows that when he’s forced to back off his proclamation (damn that pesky Consitution), he can claim it as yet another example of how Christians are persecuted in America. (Note: Being proscribed from doing what you want when you want and to whom you want is NOT “persecution.” It’s called “treating others with respect and dignity.”)
If Gov. Branstad (or anyone else) remains unconvinced that the separation of Church and state is an actual thing, all they need do is refer to the Lemon Test, a handy yardstick created by the Supreme Court in its 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman decision. The court laid out a simple three-question test to determine whether a government action represented a violation of the separation of Church and State:
- Does the government action have a secular purpose?
- Does the government action have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion?
- Does the government action foster an excessive entanglement between government and religion?
If the answer to any of those questions is “yes,” the action is to be considered unconstitutional-not that the American Taliban readily accepts Supreme Court decisions which don’t break in their favor. That’s when the weeping and gnashing of teeth begins and the cries of “JUDICIAL ACTIVISM!!!” rise to the heavens.
Branstad’s office dismissed the idea that there was anything wrong with staging marathon Christian rallies on public property.
“The governor issues many proclamations that recognize events, activities and different organizations’ causes,” said spokesman Ben Hammes. “Requests come from a broad spectrum of Iowans that reflect the broad diversity of Iowa.”
One of the event’s top organizers, Iowa Prayer Caucus director Ginny Caligiuri, has dismissed the idea of a separate church and state as “a fallacy.” Those rules are in place, she told the Register, to protect churches from government overreach, not the other way around.
Ms. Caligiuri’s willful, self-serving ignorance of the Constitution aside, the separation of Church and State is no fallacy. Nor was it intended to “protect churches from government overreach.” It serves to protect American governance from “religious overreach,” which actually IS a threat to our democracy, Ms. Caligiuri’s protestations notwithstanding.
(Remember, when THEY do it, it’s egregious “persecution” and tyrannical “government overreach.” When WE do it, it’s merely “submitting to the will of God.”)
I feel as if I shouldn’t have to say this, but it bears repeating- if for no other reason than to spotlight the dangerous nature of the American Taliban’s efforts to commingle their God and our government. One need only look at countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia to understand the inevitable outcome when State becomes indistinguishable from Church.
Simply put, your God doesn’t get to be our government. Your faith doesn’t provide you the right to give your narrow moral/ideological/theological agenda with the force of law. A reasonable person would be within their rights to think Gov. Branstad would understand that.
Of course, it’s not about reason, nor is it about respecting the beliefs of others and treating them with respect and dignity. It’s about pandering…which is how the American Taliban maintains control over those who refer to themselves as “Christian,” elevating their beliefs, morality, and ideology over those of “lesser” mortals.
Remember, if you ain’t got Jesus, you ain’t $#!&…at least according to the American Taliban.
