There are 3 possible government/religion positions: state prescribed religion; state prohibiting religion, and state tolerating religion. History shows all have been tried, and all forms still exist today. Of the 3 possibilities, when the state tolerates religion, I believe history demonstrates that people feel the most free, and society benefits. In America, we generally follow the tolerate religion path and the founders say this and also tasked government to “promote the general welfare.” Promoting the general welfare can take many forms and funding when direct (by spending) or indirect (by tax deduction) can be involved. However, as most of us also know intuitively, if not by past personal example, when someone funds an activity, they believe they have a right to say what should be done. This is the risk. Truly religious people would be wise to remember the phrase, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s.” It is beneficial to live in harmony with a government that tolerates religion.

Imagine if it was forbidden, on WAPO (onfaith/onreligion & postglobal) to use the compound words "GO{D} IN {G}OVERN{MENT}" Or individual Names like

"JACQ{UE}LI{NE}" Or "SAL{MO{N}" Or "BOOR{STi{N}" Or "FAI{TH}" Or "JEW}i{SH"? Or

"OBAM{A}" , "GO{D}" w/out the Curly Brackets (open & close Quotes Marks Ok) Or "G-{D}" Or

"SA{LLY}" "QU{i}NN" or "DA{VID" "WA{}TERS" or " "FA{R}EED" "ZAK{A}R}IA}" or "DAV-ID" "I{}G{}NATiUS" or the word "Washing{ton}" or "PO{ST" , MOSES, JESUS etc..???

For a test Run of "Ingoodfaith" consideration, Please remove curly brackets in WAPO's Editor & hit "Submit" button. For the Word:

""SH{i}L{O}H" [PEACE BRINGER]. So

WHY would Washington Post or George Town University et al; be soo so afraid of a (biblical) word meaning, "PEACE", Freidan, PAZ, Mir, SHALOM or "SH{}{A}{L}{O}{M}", Salaam, Ahimsah, Zhingyu"?.....?.. Testing:

"HUE{-}MATES"
['Due TO BE' or potentially Evolved HUEMATES, not HUMAN anymore].

"JO{}K}{T}AN" [The UNITED Ancestors]
{WE [i] Cometh from This Father/Mother EBERu line} hence [i] WE; US? are innately evolved as "HUEMATES" not as HUMAN anymore. As Prophecy: WE [i] Removeth the "Scepter & the Rod.. from Both hand & between King DAVID's realm who are "P{E}{L}E{G"ians [The DIVIDED Ancestors]. WE Reverseth the DRUNKIN NOAH [racist] CURSETH/SINETH preposterous Story of Moses & his Jealoused Co., And So
INSTEAD of god, replaced "ITSELF" w/the knowledge of "IT" via the Holyi Cosmic "MELCHIZEDEK PEACE-BLESSING" & more "Good TiDINGS"!

Testing Testing:

"P{E}{L}E{G"
[Means the "DIVIDED" Eber/ABRAHAMICs branch/splinter, Isaac, Ishamael, Jacob, Joseph, David, Solomon, Esau, Jesus, includes Muhammad Folks, Mormons too etc.., as their Lineage/Ancestor (NOT OUR's, Never! or unlike US HUEMATE-arians of that Holyi Cosmic NEBULA aware’d "IT"s (G-D) Naturally Selected , aka, Thee Chosen, "JO{}K}{T}AN"ian) EBERu race!

WOW! WHY WAPO???????????? WHO {Sect?, Cult?, Preacher, Editor, Moderator(s) , Mormon {Michael Otterson}, Evangelousical? , rick Warren? {Chuck Colson}? David Waters & Deepak Chopra? The Vatican the Wahabbi's, Chief Rabbinites {Adin Steinsaltz}?, & or Brad Hirsch{field}? etc..} is Behind This Blatant 1st Amendment Violation conspiracy & Jealous Anti Public-Internet DEVILISH/EVIL Censorings???

Wow! Please WAPO & Co., stop Jealously Blocking OUR, not your, Intellectual works about the "IT" [G-D doing work & becoming what one is becoming] And then Borrow for Ye gains or Withholding such whiteboarding hard work from its genuine Authors!?

One of the scariest thoughts some believe they can throw out there is that the country is going socialist, intending to level everyone to mediocrity.

The greatest leveler of them all, Jesus... a true socialist.

As expected, the very first two inaugural comments begin the bickering. On the surface of it, you ladies seem to be providing a much-needed public service, the area to debate without bounds. However, as a frequent commenter to many parts of this site I "know" some of the other participants and fear that very soon the dialogue will degenerate into the Internet equivalent of a schoolyard fistfight, complete with juvenile invective. (Substitute "liberal" for "doodyhead.") Good luck.

While I'm sure all involved have the best of intentions, I find this blog offensive in the extreme.

There is NO link between God and Government, and implying one is virtually if not inherently unconstitutional.

I am outraged at the traditional media for foisting religion down our throats and utterly detest every attempt to shore up the infantile beliefs of the traditional religion.

The American Creed - the three Mottoes on the Great Seal - is a full and sufficient means by which The Creator G-d can be known, as it was to Our Author, Founders, and Prophets who received the Covenant. Americanism is the faith journey that each sovereign citizen can publicly share as a member of Our Nation.

Sectarian factionalism is the bane of Liberty and The Reppublic - whose headwater is that which Thomas Jefferson identified in his letter to Samuel Kerchival as "an engine for enslaving mankind," "the real Anti-Christ."

No name of G-d is permitted in government by The Founders other than God of Nature, Creator God, and The Creator.

That Bush violated that explicit taboo, naming "Jesus" as his favorite political philosophy, took us straight to only Catholics on the Supreme Court violating precedent outlined in Breyer's dissent of 'Bush v. Gore' to appoint Hitler's banker's homosexual draft-dodging grandson to the White House to commit 9-11.

Since his father, with Nixon and the Roman Catholic Knight of Malta-led CIA, killed John Kennedy to send us to die for the pope in Vietnam, and his grandfather supplied the money to the author of "I Paid Hitler" after the RC Council of Bishops at Fulda gave Hitler the go-ahead, is there any true American so dense as to not recognize the true Anti-Christ?

Whig or Tory then, Whig or Tory now.

Death for Treason

Government support for sectarian religion is treason. America is The New Secular Order, for E Pluribus Unum, under only Annuit Coeptis.

Any who claim otherwise is a traitor of Rome's Anti-Christ Fifth Column.

Jeffersonian Exegesis http://theamericanfundament.blogspot.com

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD LEAVE RELIGIONS ALONE:

James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 death of over 900 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the deaths of nine other people at a nearby airstrip and in Georgetown.

Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in that state in the 1950s. Jones and the Temple later moved to California, and both gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

Later that same day, 909 inhabitants of Jonestown,[91] 276 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion.[92] This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks....Given that reasoning, Jones and several members argued that the group should commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid (often misidentified as Kool-Aid) along with a sedative.[94

SEE WIKI

The Sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, usually referred to in the Japanese media as the Subway Sarin Incident (地下鉄サリン事件 ,Chikatetsu Sarin Jiken?), was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by members of Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995.

In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on several lines of the Tokyo Metro, killing at least a dozen people, severely injuring fifty and causing temporary vision problems for nearly a thousand others. The attack was directed against trains passing through Kasumigaseki and Nagatachō, home to the Japanese government. This was (and remains, as of 2009) the most serious attack to occur in Japan since the end of World War II. The Japanese police initially reported that the attack was the cult's way of hastening an apocalypse.

LET'S SING TOGETHER, BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me
It was good for the Hebrew children
It was good for the Hebrew children
It was good for the Hebrew children
It's good enough for me
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me
It was good for dad and mother
It was good for dad and mother
It was good for dad and mother
And it's good enough for me
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me
It will do when I am dyin'
It will do when I am dyin'
It will do when I am dyin'
It's good enough for me
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
Gimme that old time religion
It's good enough for me

If there are no gods, and there's very little reason to conclude otherwise, then there are no gods in government and this blog is moot from the start.

As for religion in government, the framers wisely saw fit to create a Constitution that separates the two completely. Religion has no place in government and government has no place in religion so again this blog should be moot ... except for the cases when one encroaches on the other.

Religion should play no role what so ever in public policy. There is supposed to be a separation of church and state. The word God should be quietly kept to oneself. It should not be on dollars, in pledges of allegiance... I do not want to hear about anyones religion. No one needs to hear about mine. If everybody kept their religion or lack thereof to themselves this world would be a safer, happier, less violent place.