Our constitution has been raped, and we might as well write a new one simply saying "screw God".

The separation of church and state is contained in the first amendment of the constitution. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" The term itself was first used in Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists as an explanation of the goals they were setting. The first amendment categorically prevents the state from forcing a religion on you or keeping you from your religion. There is a body setup to judge the intent of the document: the Supreme Court. They are pretty clear that all of those things are prohibited. Engaging, endorsing, and facilitating a religion, prevents the free exercise of other religions as well as respect the establishments of some religion. If the government endorses Islam, that isn't fair to your beliefs. Many founding fathers were Christian, several were not. They were also all white, land-owning, men. Perhaps this argument would better be made that this nation was founded as a white nation, on white principles (the enlightenment was primarily the work of white men). If the government has any push towards something that endorses a religion over another religion or religion over nonreligion it is unconstitutional The Rose Garden in the White House does not endorse any religion, there are no devotionals, no prayers, no idols... is the Rose Garden atheistic? Does it advocate atheism? Our nation's public schools are PUBLIC! They are agents of the government. They cannot deny you your rights and are bound by the law. They cannot endorse religions anymore than congress can (by the 14th amendment) As for absolute morality, I'm having an argument in another forum where a religionist is arguing that slavery is perfectly moral because the Bible says it is acceptable. Actually this only became "one nation under God" in 1954. That phrase is, by the way, unconstitutional (you should expect to hear about Doe v. Rio Linda's decision sometime in the next few months). You may not advocate a religion via government machinery. Society is freely as Christian as it wants to be and the government must remain neutral. If atheism is a religion then bald is a hair color. Unfavorable speech is the only speech anybody ever needs to protect. Nobody will ever need assistance to say something everybody agrees with. A graduation is an event held by a government body. It cannot be seen to endorse a religion. Having a girl tell a bunch of people why they need to accept Jesus is not acceptable. Thanking God would be acceptable; she was preaching. Kathy Griffith was mocking all the people who "thank Jesus" for their awards at a private function with no ties to government. A courtroom is a government body. -- Oy, I'm getting pretty tired of explaining this. The bill of rights protect the people from the government. ---- Our constitution has not been violated sexually or otherwise. Our constitution has been properly applied. If you think about it, would you want a government forcing religion on people? Would you want a government forcing people away from religion? If you wanted to create a government which most people could subscribe to, what religious laws would you enact? Oddly enough, anybody who honestly answers those questions would have a perfectly secular government which categorically does not take sides on religious issues. Further, screw God would make a great bumper-sticker but a bad constitution. I don't think we would do well to do that.