Very true George, except in the case of a state...recognized religion, unless there is something in that state's constitution that says they can't use state funds for other than the recognized entities...it would NOT violate anyone's rights!True, except in matters of fundamental right. When fundamental rights are concerned (life, liberty, right to vote, due process of law, etc.), the will of the majority will not be allowed to compromise the rights of the minority....
A state recognizing the cardinal as the state bird, is that discrimination against the turkey?
People seem to confuse perceived discrimination with INSTITUTIONALIZED discrimination. One of the biggest problems we have in this country today is that every jackwagon with an axe to grind can claim the PERCEPTION of discrimination and force a minority view on the majority. It's completely antithetical to everything this country was founded on!
It's like the claim that religion corrupts government and therefore we MUST have freedom FROM religion. Can it happen...maybe. However, if you read ANYTHING by the founders, you know the 1st Amendment was to protect the church...freedom OF religion...from the state. NOT the other way around.
Read the Federalist Papers folks. OR the writings of just about any of the founders on the subject!
Exactly right. The First Amendment, however, was not so much to protect religion as to protect the unalienable right of the individual to be as religious or not in whatever way he or she chose to be. That of course extended to allow him/her to organize and openly celebrate whatever religious denomination or tradition in which he or she chose to participate.
That allowed some of the colonies to establish their own little state religions which were just as authoritarian and oppressive as were the state religions of Catholic Europe or the Church of England. The difference in America, however, was that under the dignity of freedom, those mini state religions soon began to feel wrong to just about everybody. And within a decade of the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, all had dissolved and were never re-created.
The Founders were determined that neither the Church nor the government, and certainly not the two operating in tandem as was the case in 18th century Europe, would take precedent over the unalienable rights of the individual. Neither would be given power to reward or punish anyone for what he or she did or did not believe.