Except that the 7 state's constitutions state only that someone must believe in God, not that they must be a specific religion. The problem that always ends up happening (and is right now) is that when atheists are in charge they actively try to remove religion of any other kind from any form of visibility. Christians tend to discourage, yes, but they don't fight tooth and nail to kill every other religion.
Also, as it is in state legislature and state constitutions, it technically is overridden by the US Constitution. Unless they secede from the Union, those 'laws' can never be applied.
Your opinion is to give specific wording over more useful generalized wording? Seems perfectly illogical to me.
I would if they could find a way to do so, but since this country is on the path to following the letter of the law to the exclusion of the spirit of the law... As far as I can tell you're one of those type of people that would rather have specific words to follow than an idea.
So who is this 'comfortably dominant majority faith'? You seem to be attributing a lot towards it. Don't say 'Christians', as that covers well over 100 different denominations in this country. (and most of them are non-hostile to opposing religions)
And most of those have read nothing of what the founding fathers wrote afterwards that explained the meaning of the words. The few who have, ignored it.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" - Says it all. Making it illegal to say a prayer out loud in a public location would be a violation of this, as would making a prayer mandatory. It does not prohibit religious influences from being displayed on public grounds. A display of the ten commandments doesn't force people to follow them, as is evidenced by Christians that have sex outside of marriage, or that say "God damn", etc.
What you and he fail to recognize is that the bible quite thoroughly says that God loves everyone equally... It does say that in the old testament that the Jews are his people of choice, but because they were just as, if not worse than the rest of the people of the world, he stopped giving his favor to them. (this is going off all Christian bibles here)
This is where people say the country was built on Christian beliefs, because as far as I can tell, each and every one of the bill of rights was lifted from somewhere in the Christian bible, and belief system. (I can go into detail on most of them, but that is really something for another thread)
Now are they actually Christian, or do they just say they are to get the Christian votes? That's the problem. Saying that 'the Christian majority' is being represented is very difficult to say accurately, with the majority of politicians saying many things that they will fight for once in office, which they then fight for the exact opposite of once in. (evidence: Obama. Just do a search for "Obama campaign lies")
You're looking at it from a completely different way than I'm trying to show you. Every single benefit of marriage, (tax status, next of kin, power of attorney, etc.) excluding the official title of "married" is given to anyone who wants it, and it has been that way since before the 60's. (my parents remember people getting group 'marriages' this way in the early 60's)
They are perfectly free to do that, but please don't change the meaning of words that haven't changed ever in recorded history, simply to try and make homosexual unions 'acceptable'.
In order to be considered a middle of the road person in the US, you have to be leaning towards neo-liberalism... I do agree with that assessment. Which is unfortunate, since that isn't actually middle of the road.
That it does.
My family has direct experience with forced unions... They forced my uncle to quit a good paying job with great benefits for a crappy (literally, dealing with pigs) job with no benefits, just because he didn't have enough saved to live off of for the duration of the forced strike. (all over a $0.25 raise that he didn't care about)
A forced union is bad in general.
I'm not saying completely remove all taxes, but 50% is considered very high by anyone that has done research on taxes. The sweet spot is somewhere between 30% and 40%. (though I personally would like to see it down nearer the 15% mark)
So if nobody else in the area carries birth control, you have to violate your religious principles, rearrange your store to carry a new product, (limiting space available for other products) and invest money into a product that may or may not sell? Not only is it unconstitutional, it's forcing bad business practices.
It's unfortunate that no matter which you vote for, you get the same thing. It's been that way since the 90's.
Very true.
So am I, as this really isn't the thread we should be having constitutional debates in.
