WHY SEPARATIONISTS ARE LOSING THE CONSTITUTIONAL ARGUMENT: CONSTITUTIONAL TERMINOLOGY STUBBORNLY IGNORED

by Gene Garman

Recently I received requests for funds from three "separationist" organizations: ACLU, ARL, and AU. All three referenced danger to the constitutional principle of separation in terms of "church and state." There are no such words in the Constitution. Yet, these organizations stubbornly, as if addicted, insist on using the unconstitutional wording of Thomas Jefferson, who was not at the 1787 Constitutional Convention and who is trashed by the liberal revisionist justices on the Supreme Court of the United States as being out of touch. In Wallace v. Jaffree, 1985, Justice William H. Rehnquist asserted the Establishment Clause merely prohibits establishment of a national church, even though the word church is not in the Constitution. Why, then, are the three separationist organizations losing the constitutional argument in the Supreme Court of the United States and in the Congress? One reason is because, like Rehnquist, they obviously insist on using words which distort the Constitution, to the benefit and delight of Justice Rehnquist and other revisionists. Continued use of misleading words literally feeds Justice Rehnquist's revisionist position by rejecting use of the Constitution's wording and by failing to insist in court and in Congress that words of the Constitution must be used by which to make decisions, not by using words which do not exist in the Constitution. It is a "religious" test which shall not be required, not a church test. It is "religion" which shall not be established by law, not a church. Of course, church is included in "religion," but no wonder organizations like the ACLU, ARL, and AU are not winning in Court or in Congress. If they cannot get the terminology of their argument constitutionally correct, how are they going to counter Justice Rehnquist who uses the same unconstitutional revisionist language. If the First Congress had meant simply "church," it would have written "church." If the Constitution is to be understood, it must be understood in its own terms, otherwise confusion and the wrong guys win. Itıs the wording, Stupid! Hello? Never use "church and state." Instead use Madison's constitutional wording, "separation between Religion and Government" (William and Mary Quarterly, 3:555), and do not allow revisionists to use wording which is not in the Constitution as a basis for understanding the Constitution or for making a constitutional decision.

Copyright 2004 Gene Garman

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