Republicans

The other major party in the American political scene are the Republicans, or GOP. The republicans are on the other side of the political spectrum when compared with the Democrats, and this in turn makes interesting politics to watch.

In my opinion, the GOP have two key strengths as a party. The first is their abilty to have consensus among its party members about issues. If the heads of the party want them to vote no on something, they most likely will. The second major strength the party has is its fiscal responsibility. The GOP for the most part is very strict with the governments and tax payers money, and I view that as a highly favorable thing.

Alas, they also have 2 very big weaknesses as this very moment. The first is there ever increasing inability to change, or atleast meet the Democrats at the middle. This was seen very clearly in healthcare, as President Obama tried to make it a multi-party bill, while the GOP opposed the idea at every moment. Their second weakness is the fact that they are letting the Tea Party movement grow. Bad idea I think, because letting a group of people who act as dumb as they want to influence your politics means your party will suffer, period end of story.

Democrats

The Democratic party is an extremely interesting party to take an at-a-glance view of. There are both positive and negatives about the party, but when combined with Republicans, create a fun to watch political enviroment.

In my view, their strengths include an ability to adapt their party platform to the current needs of society, and the other is their progressive attitude towards law making. Both of these can be seen In the recent passage of the Health Care Bill. The Democrats saw a need to create a bill, and saw that they would have the publics support of the bill, and while it took them a long time, passed it through both houses and into law. This being said however, there are definently some negatives to the Democratic party. One is their inability to have a general consent on certain issues, and the other is their lack of discipline. Both of these negativly effect the democratic party on the national stage. This was also seen during the passage of the Health Care Bill, where it seemed Nancy Pelosi had her hands full just trying to pull votes from her own party. The Democrats have always been an interesting party to watch, and hopefully will be for the foreseable future.

Boycott Over Immigration

The New York Times had an interesting article about advocacy groups calling for an economic boycott of Arizona over their Immigration Law. Whats even more interesting is that the San Francisco city attorney Denis Herrera along with members of the Board Of Supervisers called for a halt in business done with companies in Arizona.

Personally, I think the boycotts a good idea, but at the wrong time. With every state trying to recover after the recent recession, keeping trade out would only hinder them even more. The article even states,

"At the Arizona Inn in Tucson, the manager, Will Conroy, said that over the weekend 12 customers canceled reservations or said they would not return to the state because of the law. "

I think its great people all over are protesting this unfair law, but don't unfairly punish the state. Its wrong to group them all together that way.

Church Vs. State....A Community Service Paper

Sam Campton
April 9, 2010
Period 7


Part 1
In the history of civilization on planet earth, religion has been a key force in shaping the destiny of man. Whether it was the stories concerning the Greek pantheon or the teachings of Christ, religion has shaped all aspects of life on earth. From weather patterns, natural disasters, to the miracle of life and death, all were shown as signs from above. But as humanity grew from wandering tribes to entrenched civilizations with rules and laws, a problem occurred. Sparked even further by the Enlightenment and other scientific revolutions, religion was pushed aside for a more man made approach to life. This ever increasing attitude and rejection of religion led to a problem. This problem was the conflict of church vs. state, and the effects of this problem are continuing to influence and overwhelm our daily lives.
In this current day and age, the church vs. state conflict has its roots in 2 religions, Christianity and Islam. With these two religions housing 50% of the world’s population (Religious Tolerance) their influence is evident in all aspects of life. Their influence is so strong; some countries are even governing their land based on the laws their religions hold. This then leads to a problem, which is when religions influence is too much. This problem is ever apparent in the United States of America, a country that has the freedom of religion written into its constitution. While the United States constitution gives the right to practice whichever religion you choose, it limits the amount of influence any religion can have in politics, because legally the government cannot favor one religion over another. But the limits this freedom of religion imposes on the government are continuously assaulted on all sides by different denominations, which are trying to impose their version of the ultimate truth, and what that truth deems as good and bad, on our political system. This can be seen readily in politics on almost a daily basis. It’s no coincidence that in a country founded on protestant beliefs; only one president elected has been of a non-protestant faith. It’s also not a surprise that no atheist, or someone of any other religion besides Christianity, has been elected at all in to the nation’s highest office of power. This unspoken of bias is one of the many challenges facing not only the government of the United States and its laws, but also the sanctity of the church, and what role it will play in the future.
The problem of church vs. state in the United States has not gone unnoticed by the general public, and many demand action towards minimizing its ever increasing influence. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in 2004, “two thirds of Americans say religious leaders should not attempt to influence politicians’ positions on the issue.” This same poll also brings up an interesting point about the United States political system. According to the poll, 35% of participants believed the church should try to influence politics, while 65% said no, yet amongst Conservative Evangelical Protestants; the split went 55% to 45% in favor of church leaders influencing politicians. (ABC). With the last 8 years held by conservatives, it seems the churches influence on our government has increased, and the public has noticed. The largest influence the church has had in recent government legislation is abortion. Protestant backed politicians constantly hamper its passage based on religious grounds, not constitutional. The constant hampering of the public opinion by religiously inclined politicians has angered the general public, and they want change.

Part 2
The government of the United States of America is in an internal gridlock. With the current government divided along party and ideological lines, reaching a consensus about the problem of church vs. state seems like a lofty goal. However, steps have been made to try to create a large separation in the conflict. The U.S. Supreme Court Locke vs Davey in 2004 concluded that a state could not be required to extend scholarship money towards students becoming members of clergy. This case concluded two following points. One is that the federal government cannot mandate states to follow church vs state, as a state could still provide money for those students, but that also the federal government does support church vs. state. Another case which made an appearance in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was Elk Grove Unified School District vs. Newdow, in which the they concluded because the pledge of allegiance contained “under god” (which was an addition in the 1900’s to go against communism), it violated the First Amendment Right guaranteed by the Constitution and therefore was illegal because it validated only one religion. Another example would be Lee vs. Weisman in 1992. The US Supreme Court ruled that it was against the Constitution for a prayer to be placed during a public event, this one being a school graduation. Even the tax exemption of politically motivated churches, as in the case of the C Street Center has been called into question. While the government of the United States remains divided on the subject of church vs. state, the government has been stepping it up when it comes to protecting the First Amendment Right of its citizens.
For this project, I did my community service at my church, Creekside Community. My work wasn’t overtly religious, none of it had much to do with the promotion of religion, but instead I helped to provide a service to the community. And that’s what the churches image should be, a service. In our study this year, we learned that the government can only provide so much to its citizens, as we have seen with the health care crisis which recently reached a conclusion and the financial collapse of 2009, and this is where things like a church fill the gap. When used properly, a church is a powerful tool in the community, and with the laws in place by our Constitution, they are allowed to flourish relatively burden free. It is when a church turns into a major political force is when we run into a problem. For the most part, many of these churches do not act as extreme political motivators. Having sat threw many sermons; politics is rarely, if ever, brought up, the recent event being Prop 8 in California being the notable exception. For many of these churches, politics is a place to stay out of. In the Bible, it “And Jesus answering said to them, Render to Caesar what is Caesers, and to God what is Gods.”(Matthew 12:17). While this is referencing taxes, the point is simple, as it legitimatizes human government from the Christianity standpoint. It acknowledges that there is a separation between the two, and while God is the higher authority, you still must follow the laws of the land. Politics are only a small part of the Bible, with the verse in Matthew being the only mentioning of it directly, while service of others in mentioned innumerably in the Bible, which is what my community service boiled down to.
Part 3
The problem of church vs. state is something that can not be eliminated. With the very foundations of many of the worlds governmental bodies based on religious principle, there is no hope for immediate change. However, we can alleviate this problem, or at least lessen the issue, in a number of ways. One would be the support of pro-separation bills. For example, in Arizona, a bill is in effect to place the Ten Commandments on the capital building. This very act violates the First Amendment, and the continuation of this bill would jeopardize that freedom it protects. Another example would be the conflict of gay marriage in California. The voters trying to repeal the gay marriage ban seemingly lost the fight, yet this battle has deep religious ties. Marriage has a deep meaning in religion, and while it is the voter’s right to believe that gay marriage is wrong, the major supporters for the ban are religious establishments, further evidence of church involvement. Personally, I think gay marriage should be allowed to happen, and I am a Christian. My reasoning however is not religious, but comes from the view that we are alienating someone if we impose this law, and if we look at it purely in the context of our constitution, it should be allowed. Another way to mitigate the conflict of church vs. state is to vote. The only way to prevent religion interfering often with the United States political system is to vote for those who will not bring those views with them. In a perfect world, the senators and representatives would vote without bias, but that world doesn’t exist. Religious prejudice when voting is ever present and it can be seen from laws ranging from health care to taxes. Educated voting is key to removing this problem from our government.
My community service presented me with a great opportunity to contribute to my community. With my church having a large part of its doctrine dedicated to the mission of service, it was easy to integrate myself into tasks suitable for what I was trying to accomplish, which was non religious work. Being able to see for the first time the power that the church can have in a community made me completely understand why it is such a major force in American politics. It also made me put into perspective the church vs. state conflict. With religion being such a huge force in the daily lives of people around the world, it’s understandable for them to seek more power. Sometimes it’s purely genuine, as the church truly wants to help people, but as we learn more and more, we become aware that this is not always the case. Sometimes it is purely as a way to overstep the law, as is being revealed in the Catholic sex abuse scandal. Can the pope be prosecuted under international law for documents that imply his role in the cover up of the scandals, or are the Catholic churches power to much? Is in fact the pope the head of state? Its problems like these that we will continue to see in the future for the church vs. state conflict, and as we become a more global world, the problem will have to be addressed. But in the meantime, steps can be taken to alleviate the burden of the issue, and at the same time reconcile the problems








Citations
"ABC News Washington Post Poll." ABC News/ Washington Post. ABC News, 23 May 2004. Web. 10 Apr.2010. .

"Religions of the World: Numbers of Adherents; Growth Rates." ReligiousTolerance.org by the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. .

Going Against the Pope

Maureen Dowd had an intersting Op-Ed article on NYTimes today about how the Catholic church is seemingly falling apart under this abuse scandal and what should be happening as a result. I believe that the priest who have been abusing kids should be punished under the fullest extent of the law, but at the same time, you shouldn't punish the Pope. He is a head of state, and loved my probably billions at this point, and charging him with a crime he has a vague connection to is wrong.

Suicide in Mass Leads to Outrage

The New York Times wrote this interesting, yet at the same time, frightening, article about a girls suicide in a Massachusetts High School. Phoebe Prince, a Irish immigrant was bullied so harshly, she committed suicide, and this has led to a charges against 9 students and an investigation into bullying around the state.

It's terrible how people can bully an innocent girl so much and cause he to kill herself, and I think its about time that those who have caused so much psychological harm towards the girl should get punished. At the same time, I also don't think the programs to combat bullying should stay in the Bay State. Every state could use a program to combat bullying, to prevent something like this. And while I think bullying lessens the older you get, the girl herself was 15, prime age for when the bullying occurs. Lets just hope this is seen as one of the last suicides over bullying and people finally start to fix the problem.

Sikh in the Army

I found this on NYTimes.com and I was glad i did. The article is about the first Sikh man ever to complete Army basic training with out losing his faith. I really think this is a great example of how Church Vs State can be accommodated in certain situations, especially something like serving your country. Hopefully we will continue to see this happen more and more often and not exclude so many.

Mental Health Break....Supersize!

Funny Funny Funny. Just as bad as the Knicks are at basketball.

Catholics Take A Hit

It seems the Pope has failed in containing the Irish Sex Scandal. Reported on by MSNBC earlier today, it seems that the Catholic church had in fact known about the Catholic abuse scandals for a long time, yet failed to do anything about it. And to make matters worse, this happens while people are accusing the Pope, who ran the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of alerting the public even less about potential child molesters in their local clergy. I just hope the Catholic church can step up and fix this problem as quick as possible before they take even more blows that they can't recover from. Otherwise, not just the Catholic Faith, but the rest of christianity will suffer in the process.

BFD!!!!

Yes America, this is a Big F***** Deal. While i know its wrong to swear on camera, the fact that healthcare passed is just amazing, and when the conservative wing just jumps on this as proof that Obamacare is wrong, their really just digging themselves a bigger hole. I just hope a republican slips up soon and instead of blowing it out of proportion, the Dems ignore it, and shut out the highly negative aspects of the GOP.

Teabaggers and their Slurs

Once again, the fringe of the republican party strikes a blow that hurts their party as a whole. How can you take a political party seriously when they resort to slurs to protest healthcare. I can only hope they get their act together and just ignore the teabaggers, because while i am not a republican, i would hate to see the democrats run the show entirely either.

Mental Health Break....Released!

A New Textbook in Texas

The New York Times had this quite frightening article that essentially will be mixing facts and opinions into school systems in Texas. According to the article, the changes will include,

"Stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light."

I really cannot see anything positive about this. Teaching kids essentially skewed facts is just so wrong. Not only are you pushing an agenda in school, your requiring kids to accept your version to pass. And even according to this article, also on NYTimes.com, there deciding not to focus on Ted Kennedy, a pivotal figure in American politics, and have more focus on an organization such as the NRA. There even trying to push religion as a major part of the education. I just hope someone finally speaks out against this, or lord knows it will happen elsewhere.

Sen. Alexander on Obama

No no no no no. Saying Obama's push for some kind of healthcare legislation is in the same league of Watergate is just silly. Sen. Alexander is blatantly saying they will try to block any kind of changes the House wants to make to the bill, which i think people just find down right wrong, and try to make Obama and the Democrats seem like the bad guys. It just amazes me that people like him are still elected.

A New Public Option

Matthew Yglesias had this really great article about a new version of the Public Option introduced by Rep. Alan Grayson. Essentially, the key is that it pays for itself, no need for tax dollars to fund it. Will congress except this, probably not, but its still a great idea that should be considered. If people actually find this as a viable idea, and congress still passes by it, people are seriously going to start getting angry about the lack of doing in congress.

Oh Boy...I got this article of of Andrew Sullivans The Daily Dish and i must say, this is scary. What she is praying for is downright censorship of the media, something guaranteed by our constitution to never happen. I mean does she really understand what she is saying at all? The "Christian Broadcasting Corporation"? Its saddening to think that people agreed with her as well.

Mental Health Break....Assault

Compliments from over the lake.

Democratization of Finding God

Ross Douthat, a NYTimes Op-Ed columnist, had a great article whether the mysticism has gone mass-market and against what it should be, or that religion in general has just evolved. And while he plays both sides of the argument well, when he says

"By making mysticism more democratic, we’ve also made it more bourgeois, more comfortable, and more dilettantish"

He seems to be throwing the ball towards the other side, which I completely agree. Religion is really not meant to be something you insert into your life when its convenient, and if thats a problem, you accommodate. Anything else would just distance yourself from the true meaning of the religion, no matter which one it is.

Mental Health Break...GO!!!!

Rick Reilly's great article. Read an enjoy.

Time.com had this really great article on a surge in the studying of religion on state-affiliated campuses. I think this is exactly the thing needed to not only revitalize interest in religion, but to also keep it from tearing itself apart. With more people having a religious base background, it seems there less likely to preach the wrong message, or even create their own version of church doctrine.

The C Street Center

The NYTimes website had this really interesting Op-Ed article about the C Street Center. For those that don't know, this place is inhabited by conservative christian politicians. What is wrong with this picture is that it counts as church, and has extremely large tax breaks. While other problems surround this place, what i view as wrong, and according the article, many other church officials do as well, is that it continues to receive tax breaks when its in fact not a church. In general, tax breaks for religious establishments is wrong. Its essentially setting up a way for anyone to just claim there business or operation as a religious establishment and receive cheap tax breaks. Hopefully, the C Street Center will be made an example of, and along with them, anyone who fakes to receive the breaks.

Pope Comes To Head on Catholic Abuse Scandals

The NYTimes had a great story on how the Pope is finally stepping up to the plate with allegations that have been brought against the Irish Catholic Church. The allegations in the 700 page Murphy Report claim that "accused church leaders and the police there of covering up decades of child sexual abuse by priests in Dublin." I really think this is a great step towards repairing Catholic interest in an area that still has religious turmoil, in this case Protestant vs Catholicism. Ireland is already an area where the lines of separation of church and state are hard to distinguish, but at least soothing over the woes of the countries major religion could help restore the balance.

Still Bad News For Jobs

It seems that the stimulus bill still hasn't had the effect it was predicted to have. Whats even worse is employers are sitting on jobs. No wonder employments rates are just sitting at 10% and wont budge.

Creationism and Schools

New York Times had this great article on a man whose under fire for teaching creationism and pushing a religious based agenda in his classroom. The teacher in question, John Freshwater, has been accused of burning crosses on arms and teaching creationism, something which we can assume is banned from the curriculum. In his defense, "he said he had been a target for removal since 2003, when he proposed that the school board adopt a policy to teach evolution as theory, not proven scientific fact". This is understandably a very touchy issue to tread on for both Christians and those no affiliated in the church. In his defense, evolution is a theory, nothing more, but against him, technically creationism is as well. While people on both sides believe these to be true, they are just theories, not fact. But bringing this argument to a scale like this isn't the greatest way to debate the subject.

Ragging on Palin pt 2...

Its seems the White House even decided to make fun of her. I feel bad for the poor woman, but at the same time, she set her self up for stuff like this. But either way...its still funny.

Mental Health Break...ATTACK!

Wish i could see these at the games I go to....

Preaching Love...But Only For Some?

In a New York Times Op-Ed Column by Eric Lax, he points out an interesting contradiction that the church has been preaching over the years. To put it into context, the whole jist of the New Testament in the Bible is simple, God Is Love. Above all else, this is the main theme. Yet, as Eric Fox points out, the church views "if two members of the same sex engage in long, committed and faithful love; God may be love, but this love is ungodly." Time out! As a Christian myself, and at that a young one, even I understand how wrong this is. To say God Is Love, the crux of your religion, can be overshadowed by something as trivial as being gay, is just completely beyond me. The church continue to alienate itself from the mainstream, and while that can be good in some cases, to continue to bring more followers in, you need to check yourself when it comes to stuff like this.

Avatar...Ecoterrorism

People right-of-center continue to amaze me. Dr. Richard Swier, , a proclaimed conservative called the 3d extravaganza Avatar a tool for recruiting eco-terrorist.....Really. He goes on to say..

"AVATAR is pure eco-propaganda designed to subtly and not so subtly force the environmentalist agenda on us all. The story line in AVATAR is simple: Humans invade the pristine planet Pandora with the intent to take all its natural resources for profit."

I cant really say anything else than stop taking everything literally. Enjoy the movie you payed an absurd price to see and stop throwing useless accusations into it. I doubt James Cameron meant it to be taken anymore than entertaining.

Community Sevice...

While my current community service project is in the process of being worked out, i have narrowed down what my topic will be on. Im planning on using my community service project to relate to our current health care trouble for those who can't afford it. Being either the poor or elderly, this problem is something i believe everyone can be apart of to fix, and hence i am choosing it as my community service project. Hopefully i will have something concrete soon.

Unemployment Woes....

Andrew Sullivan linked to an interesting article on The Atlantic about the national unemployment rate during the month of December. 85,000 jobs were terminated during the month of December, worse then what many believed would happen. The article paints both a good and bad picture of this situation. The good news is this...

"First, November's wonderful news may, indeed, have been just a blip. However, you could still draw a pretty nice trend from December 2008 through December 2009. If this progression continues, then 2010 should show some actual job growth before too long."

While the bad news is shown in the picture above. Disgruntled workers nearing a million could spell even more trouble for our fragile economy.

Jack Cafferty on Obama and Health Care

While i agree with what Mr.Cafferty said here, theres no reason to rip Obama and the democrats apart for something like this. It seems every major news organization just has to tear apart this administration for something, and while yes, we should have the health care debates televised, going out and proclaiming it like this is completely wrong. Lets just hope his anger will be for nothing and the debates will be shown to the public.

Holding Our Colleges Accountable

I was reading on Time.com and i came across this interesting article. Kevin Carey, a member of the think tank Education Sector, comes out blasting our current college system and whether it really is up to stuff. The most interesting thing he said in his interview was

"Sure, every college is different in some way from its peers, but I would defy anyone to explain to me the difference between Indiana University Southeast and Indiana University Northwest. They're like the same thing, basically. They all teach the same classes by and large — business, engineering, education. These are the classes that college students actually take. Very few people are studying 5th century Chinese calligraphy. So colleges are not as different from one another as they would like people to believe."

As a senior looking into whether college is a good choice or not, its disquieting to her this news that the years of debt i might incur threw tuition for the same classes just really doesn't appeal to me. I think its time that either a watchdog group or even the government starts to call out these universities.