Reader: Religion and government should be kept separate

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Editor:

While I have my own personal disputes with Obamacare, I believe it is imperative to keep religion out of government matters ( “Administration ignores our First Amendment rights, Oct. 25).

I agree that some legislation may be an imposition on personal religion but it is very hypocritical to justify your reasoning based on your own religious bias: I shouldn’t impose on your religion; but you can impose your religion on me?

Religion in government is stone age, borderline un-American: it is the reason we left England. Besides, what is so sacrilege about decreasing the number of unwanted children with very little quality of life?

Did you know Romney has in the past rallied for pro-choice before he took the Republican candidacy?

And you want to talk about Constitutional liberties? Let’s talk gay marriage: it is unconstitutional for the majority party (heterosexuals) to dictate the minority party (homosexuals) and that’s exactly what Proposition 8 did by voters in California, what this country continues to do.

There is your clear violation of Constitutional integrity. No one is exempt from violating the Consitution. We all do with our own beliefs.

A truly conscious voter would look into how public figures voted when they were still on the state level. I think the most important argument here is that when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, he sought to bring healthcare legislation to the state that is almost unrecognizable from Obamacare.

So if you’re standing by your religious agenda, know this: “Romneycare” meant impositions of the same birth control requirements and the same fines for those who did not purchase the newly-legislated healthcare as current Obamacare, which by your argument means the same violation of First Amendement rights.

And if you have any idea what Romney did during his career with Bain Capital, you would question his conscience.

Andrea Daniels

Columbiana, Ohio

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13 COMMENTS

  1. You can say whatever you want about Romney,I’am still gana vote for him,,,there is noway in this world i would ever vote for Obama he is destroying this country..he has lied about raiseing taxes(obamacare)he has put us more in debt,he and his wife are tellling us what we can and can’t feed our childer in school and at home,he wants to do away with coal and gas and oil..he wants us all to be dependant on govt…vote him out!

    • There are studies out proving that OBAMA HAS SPENT LESS TAX PAYER DOLLARS PER YEAR THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENT IN THE LAST 60 YEARS!!!
      This is a fact!

      How quickly we forget that Bush managed to destroy a 5.6 TRILLION DOLLAR SURPLUS in only TWO YEARS and on top of that created a 10 TRILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT!!! This is also a fact.

      How can anyone possibly fix that in such a short amount of time!?

      Your statements are NOT fact, they are opinion. Things you’ve heard other people say based on THEIR opinion. You type of people hear things and mimic it like robots. You don’t even do your own research on the matter!! Inform yourself!

      Also, how is it so bad that they want to make school lunches healthier. Seriously?? Is that what you want for your own children, to have health problems related to obesity, preservatives exposure, hormone exposure, etc. by the time they’re 40? At this rate 30?

      When you were growing up I guarantee your lunch options were a lot healthier than they are now. God forbid the President and the first lady actually want to make their constituents, and haters, healthier! Give us all a longer life! We won’t make healthy decisions for ourselves and sometimes these things need to be forced upon us. Why?? Because when someone’s in a hospital because they had a heart attack most likely from being obese, taxpayers end up paying for it somehow anyway! Be it the 911 call, the police, the ambulance. The roads you took to get there! The roads built to expedite your drive to the hospital. Infrastructure people!

      Lastly, Obama’s goal is to not take away coal and gas, his emphasis has always been on ALTERNATIVE ENERGY. WHY DON’T YOU PEOPLE GET THIS??

      His views lie in alternative energy: wind, solar, hydro, compost for crying out loud. That is how we become energy independent. That’s how we create jobs. That’s how we manage to reduce the lives lost because of these dangerous coal and oil jobs.

      Every President claims they can be a silver bullet to this country’s problems but no one can. It’s especially tough when people don’t give credit when credit is due nor complain enough when we’re unsatisfied!!!

      Our two party system is extremely polarizing! Take this article for example and these responses! We all need to come together and appreciate what makes us similar, that we all suffer and we all need help. Appreciate our differences and our opinions but without jamming it down each other’s throats!

  2. All the entire Roman Catholic Church, its parochial schools, its hospitals, its universities, its hunger centers, its Parishes want is TO BE LEFT ALONE! They want to be free to practice their faith without government intrusion. This is fundamental to their rights.

    They do not wish to IMPOSE their beliefs on anyone.

    Likewise, they do not want the federal; government to dictate to them what exatly “religion” is. This is what ObamaCare does: it defines religion. This is intolerable and against the First Amendment.

    Secondly, Catholics do not want their tax dollars being spent to murder innocent life–either by abortion or euthanasia of elderly.

    This is the “sacrilege” of which you ask–the MURDER of innocent human beings by the use of tax dollars. AM I CLEAR HERE? Science and medicine now agree that human life begins at conception–look it up. The “termination” of human life is contrary to God’s law, as well as natural law.

    When “government” dictates my taxes it forcibly extracts from me are to be used to murder innocents, I PROTEST. (That, also, is guaranteed under our Constitution.)

    Maybe your ideas would be better accepted in, say communist China under Mao, nazi Germany under Hitler, or Russia under Stalin, all of which MURDERED MILLIONS of its own citizens. Religion was the first thing they banned…

    • As a member of a Catholic family for generations, I am ashamed of our religions currents stance against birth control. 90% of the current Catholics use or have used used birth control, sterilization, and yes abortion to avoid unwanted pregnancies. I’ll never give a nickel to the church heirarchy until they quit their lies. Time for woman priests and pope as well!

    • I would like to see these scientific, scholarly articles you speak of that say life starts at conception. Are these the same scientists that disgraced congressman Todd Akin spoke of. You know, the ones saying that female eggs know when “rape sperm” enters and therefore the female body “shuts down” and is incapable of becoming pregnant???

      The Catholic church really has no moral grounds anymore OR substantial say in ethical issues in this country. They continued to keep priests that raped and molested young boys.

      So killing an innocent life is not okay, but subjecting young boys to live a life in shame and disgrace and confusion of their sexuality is justifiable, forgivable?? Because that’s what the Catholic church has says by keeping those priests.

      Republicans believe that one corporation should be one entity, one vote, one donation to their party. Even if this corporation employs hundreds or thousands of people, they should still be considered one entity. THAT is in fact Communism. That is in fact what Russia is doing now, and what Communist countries have done in history. I don’t believe that.

      And on that note of Communism, a term you so hastily throw around, how many people have been killed throughout history in the name of religion?? Religious agendas kill people too!!!! Am I clear??

      Your acerbic, religious opinion is so commonplace in this country. You use religion to back your views without real knowledge of societal pressures and realities. The Catholic church lives in a bubble, dictating what everyone should do, how we should live our lives, supposedly backed by the word of God. Haaa!!

      While Obamacare may require the insurance companies to provide birth control, it does not mean they have to force it upon people. It’s good to have the option available for women. I’m sure many members of your church will be very please to have it at their discretion. Even though they will pretend like they don’t because they’re so oppressed by the Catholic church.

      Government should be less in our lives. But you strike me as someone who wants your own personal religion left alone, but would probably love to see religion that doesn’t coincide with your views exterminated. Again, commonplace religious agenda in this nation.

      Lastly, Obamacare does not define religion. It says nothing about religion, period. I imagine you’re pro-war, but pro-life. Kind of oxymoronic don’t you think?? What is God’s law on that? If you’re so pro-life, why don’t you start adopting some of the unwanted children then. Because I guess “murdering” a cell before it ever has any feeling what-so-ever (kind of like scratching your own skin) is so much worse than a child in an orphanage living 18 years of his/her life not really knowing love or compassion.

      I applaud Catholicism when it actually does something about the problem they complain about: the Church doesn’t believe in abortion but will actually open up kind, loving orphanages. THAT is resolving something you have a problem with.

      Dictating how a woman’s body should be dealt with, that’s only standing on your pedestal trying to create problems.

  3. Lastly, I will sum up my argument with one more statement. I think everyone would benefit knowing this and should mull it over for themselves.

    The great Thomas Jefferson, who, although did not have a hand in the Constitution, had supported the idea that it should be reviewed and updated every 19 years! In an effort to be modified to fit the times. He believed that in not doing so, we would be a slave to prior generations!

    And there it stands, hasn’t been touched since 1787!

    While I agree our rights shouldn’t be changed, there are fabrics within these amendments that should be modified to fit our current situations.

    It’s much like the Bible, people pick and choose what they want to refer to in the Constitution and in the Bible. Some argue that things in both documents have changed over time, such as mutiple wives, or the right to own slaves. While others hold true to some components of these historic documents.

    But in truth, both of these documents are subjective, and because of this we find reasons to argue.

  4. In 8 years bush added almost 5 billion to the deficate,,in 4 years obama added almost 7billion,that is a fact,,obama has spent more money then any other president,,104 million a year just on staff for his dog,another fact..Obama dose not want coal production or gas and oil production,fact!!

  5. Very accurate and insightful, Andrea, and very well stated. Unless the Republican party comes into the 21st century and quits pandering to the religious right against the majority of the population, it will continue to lose–and this opinion not just from me, but from prominent Republican leaders as well.

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