"Ceremonial deism," U.S. civil religion, and the law


	"Ceremonial deism," U.S. civil religion, and the law

enbar

9-3-2008 11:33 AM

443 views

tags:

religion, pluralism, america, church_and_state, civil_religion, god, politics, law

enbar says:

A Pew Forum backgrounder on the status of (supposedly) religiously-neutral invocations of a deity by government agents.

1 Comment |

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9-3-2008 2:36 PM

Spiritualmonkey

And yet it feels to me like nothing so much as the camel's nose inside the tent.

Especially with these camels we have today.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ee4d2e97-88a0-43c3-aacd-8b0b21dbe976/CDF5FBBA-DBD3-491F-A29A-21E3D680E521/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=335" href="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=335" style="font-size: 11px;">pewforum.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=335"><AREA alt="Home" href="http://pewforum.org/" coords="10,10,329,70" shape="rect"></AREA></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=335"><H1>On Ceremonial Occasions, May the Government Invoke a Deity?</H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=335"><P>Through these
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of these religious invocations say such proclamations promote religion and thus
violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits all laws
“respecting an establishment of religion.” Defenders of governmental religious
invocations, by contrast, claim that such expressions do not explicitly promote
religion; rather, defenders say, religious proclamations merely acknowledge the
historical and cultural connections between the United States and belief in God. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=335">In an
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