Church Of Satan And Separation Of Church And State

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Current Event: Church of Satan and separation of church and state: Alex Newkirk The First Amendment of the U.S. constitution prohibits making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. (U.S. Constitution) This means that our government guarantees United States citizens religious freedom. It does not say anything about the separation of church and states, but to grant us religious freedom. It also implores us to petition our government if it does infringe on our religious freedoms guaranteed to us in the First …show more content…
They intended the First Amendment to be more of a safe guard against the possibility of a Winthrop’s Santorum, which is pretty much the vision of a Christian nation. Winthrop did not believe in natural liberties like our founding fathers did. He believed in a more moral style of liberties, more adherent to the relationship between man and god. Winthrop’s visions went against everything the founding fathers believed in. The founding fathers believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, in the sense of doing good, and doing gods will through your own personal life. The First Amendment protects our freedoms. (Barry 2012) Separation of church and state has been a hot topic issue as of recently. The Church of Satan has been trying to exercise its First Amendment rights. One instance involves The Church of Satan erecting a religious statue on the front lawn of the Oklahoma state capitol. Another instance of The Church of Satan using its freedom of religion, was distributing religious educational information in the Florida school systems. (Foster Jr 2014)(Guiney …show more content…
All religions should be protected under the First Amendment. (Guiney 2014) Meanwhile in Orange County Florida, The Satanic Church has decided to challenge the notion of the separation of church and state yet again. This time it challenges the rights to distribute and disseminate religious information. The Church of Satan took note that other religious organizations handing out religious information. The Church of Satan believes that it too has the right to hand out and disseminate their religion in schools. (Frank 2014) The Judge that heard the case in Florida ruled that The Church of Satan had full rights to exercise its religious freedoms set forth by the First Amendment. Lucien Greaves made it a point to say that the children would not be shown satanic scripture or readings. The Church of Satan handed out pamphlets and a coloring book. It is important to note that Christians have not been happy with these rulings what so ever. If the Christians were to have their ideal way, their teachings would be the only ones permissible to teach and inform about in the schools. (Foster Jr

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