{"id":676,"date":"2010-10-20T17:52:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-20T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/first-amendment-what-first-amendment.html"},"modified":"2010-10-20T17:52:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T17:52:00","slug":"first-amendment-what-first-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/first-amendment-what-first-amendment.html","title":{"rendered":"First Amendment…What First Amendment?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
One of the most hysterical claims of Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine O\u2019Donnell is that she\u2019s a constitutional scholar.\u00a0 This is based on a seven day seminar she took from some conservative think-tank.\u00a0 She\u2019s been ridiculed in recent days for not understanding the First Amendment.\u00a0 Anderson Cooper covered this yesterday<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Cooper, after playing video of O\u2019Donnell\u2019s opponent explaining the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment, said that O\u2019Donnell was right that the literal phrase \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
does not appear in the Constitution.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cWhat she got right was the technicality,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWhat a lot of people think she missed was everything else.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
It is certainly true that the phrase \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d does not appear in the Constitution.\u00a0 It originated with Thomas Jefferson in the \u201cDanbury Letter\u201d of 1802:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should \u201cmake no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,\u201d thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThroughout American history some have rejected this metaphor, including Justices of the Supreme Court. \u00a0Like Cooper, I have a hard time believing that O\u2019Donnell was arguing from this point of view, given that she also didn\u2019t know what the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments are.\u00a0 Nobody expects her to memorize the Constitution, but these have been in the news as a result of Republicans suggesting they should be repealed and she has repeatedly held herself out as a Constitutional expert.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Cooper\u2019s report:<\/span>

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThere\u2019s also this fool,<\/span> Minnesota Republican Secretary of State candidate<\/span><\/a> Dan Severson:<\/span>\n<\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cQuite often you hear people say, \u2018What about separation of church and state?\u2019 There is no such thing,\u201d Severson told Brandon. \u201cI mean it just does not exist, and it does not exist in America for a purpose, because we are a Christian nation.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
He continued, \u201cWe are a nation based on Christian principles and ideals, and those are the things that guarantee our liberties. It is one of those things that is so fundamental to the freedoms that we have that when you begin to restrict our belief and our attestation to our Christian values you begin to restrict our liberties.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
He added, \u201cYou simply cannot continue a nation as America without that Christian base of liberty.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
I wish all the good people of Delaware and Minnesota the best of luck keeping these two out of office.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most hysterical claims of Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine O\u2019Donnell is that she\u2019s a constitutional scholar.\u00a0 This is based on a seven day seminar she took from some conservative think-tank.\u00a0 She\u2019s been ridiculed in recent days for not understanding the First Amendment.\u00a0 Anderson Cooper covered this yesterday: Cooper, after playing video of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,12],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-church-and-state","tag-fundamentalist-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Amendment...What First Amendment?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most hysterical claims of Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine O\u2019Donnell is that she\u2019s a constitutional scholar.\u00a0 This is based on a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/first-amendment-what-first-amendment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Amendment...What First Amendment?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most hysterical claims of Delaware Senate Republican candidate Christine O\u2019Donnell is that she\u2019s a constitutional scholar.\u00a0 This is based on a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/first-amendment-what-first-amendment.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-20T17:52:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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