Separation of Church and State – Part 3/3

January 8, 2011

It is a fact that the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear anywhere in the Constitution.

However, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the 1st Amendment erected a “wall of separation” between the church and the state

James Madison said it “drew a line,” but it is Jefferson’s term that sticks with us today.

The phrase is commonly thought to mean that the government should not establish, support, or otherwise involve itself in any religion. The Religion Topic Page addresses this issue in more detail.

However, because Thomas Jefferson advocated a separation between church and state, he drafted a bill in 1785 designed to end any attempt to provide taxes for the purpose of furthering religious education.

Jefferson’s bill was passed making it the law of the land. His bill has also been challenged more than once in the Supreme Court and was upheld.

In Everson Versus Board (330 US 1 [1947]), the US Supreme court in a  close 5-4 vote ruled “The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws, which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another.… Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between Church and State.”

Again in 1971, in Lemon versus Kurtzman (403 US 602 [1971]), the US Supreme Court ruled “In the absence of precisely stated constitutional prohibitions, we must draw lines with reference to the three main evils against which the Establishment Clause was intended to afford protection: sponsorship, financial support, and active involvement of the sovereign in religious activity.…  the statute must not foster an excessive government entanglement with religion.”

I’ve written before that the Founding Fathers despised democracy and created a Republic to protect Americans from the democratic mob.

Now, what the Founding Fathers fears has come to pass. The US has now become a democracy and the mob has been revealed and they are evangelical Christians — that segment of the population that helped vote George W. Bush into the White House for his second term.

The wall that Thomas Jefferson established to protect US citizens from the tyranny of religion has been breached and nations such as India, Russia, China and all Islamic countries have taken notice.

Although China’s Constitution was written in 1982, it is obvious that China’s leaders took care to protect China from the same tyranny that now threatens the US and the globe.

Return to Separation of Church and State – Part 2

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, cultural differences, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Separation of Church and State — Part 2/3

January 7, 2011

The Federal government has no business using taxpayer dollars to spread organized religion around the world.

Cobourg Atheist lists 25 countries with limited or no freedom of religion.

Cobourg says, “It’s fairly clear that Muslim countries are the most common offender – in fact I don’t think any Muslim country is missing from the list!”

Two of those 25 countries, China and India, have about a third of the world’s population. Islam holds another 1.6 billion bringing the total to more than half.

With Russia on the list, more than half the world’s population is being pressured by a very small minority in the US that has decided it knows what’s best for the globe.

It doesn’t help that almost 80% of the US population are Christians. That makes this issue appear suspicious.

However, it is only a small segment of those Christians that are responsible for what it happening and they are ignoring the history and cultures of the countries on Cobourg’s list.

Only in a nation with the “hidden” Soul of a Church could this happen.

What is happening in the US has happened before and is mentioned in the embedded video where you will discover that much of Islam was spread by war. Study the Timeline of Islam to see how many wars were fought that spread the Islamic religion.

It appears that the United States has decided to travel the same path.

Since 1998, the U.S. Department of State has had an Office of International Religious Freedom with the mission of promoting religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy.  This office releases a report each year on the global state of religious freedom with information on every country on the globe.

In 1998, the US passed legislation titled the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (H.R. 2431) and an amendment in 1999 (Public Law 106-55).

Nations so designated are subject to further actions by the United States including economic sanctions.

Could the clause “subject to further actions” have been the real reason behind the Bush administration manufacturing false evidence to launch a war in Iraq — not to build a democratic nation but to introduce a strong Christian influence in the Middle East?

In Part 3, we will see why it is illegal for the US government to use taxpayer money to support or otherwise involve itself in any religion.

Return to Separation of Church and State – Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, Christianity, cultural differences, Islam, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Gwyneth Paltrow Popular in China

January 7, 2011

With Country Strong, Gwyneth Paltrow’s popularity in China may mean a busy box office in Chinese theaters.


Gwyneth Paltrow – Country Strong – CMA Awards 2010

However, Facts and Details says, “Many foreign films never make it to China. The guidelines on content are very strict: No sex, no religion. Nothing to do with the occult. Nothing that could threaten public morality or portray criminal behavior—in other words, the basic ingredients for many successful films. Those that are allowed to be shown often have key scenes deleted.”

The China Daily reported how Paltrow asked Beyonce for singing tips while Country Strong was in production. She told Access Hollywood, “I kind of asked my girl singer friends for advice. I asked Faith Hill a lot of questions – and Beyonce actually too.”

Why would China Daily be reporting this of Paltrow if Country Strong hadn’t been approved for Chinese audiences?


Gwyneth Paltrow’s solo in Infamous

In fact, Paltrow’s belief in Chinese medicine may help see Country Strong, with some cutting, appear in Chinese cinemas.

About five years ago, Gwyneth attended a premiere in a backless gown revealing a collection of symmetrical, purple dots that graced the skin of her back. Those marks were a sign of “cupping” and sent a flurry of photographs around the globe and even prompted her friend Oprah Winfrey to explore this ancient (medical) practice on her show.

“It feels amazing and it’s very relaxing, and it feels terrific,” Paltrow told Winfrey. “It’s just one of the alternative medicines that I do instead of taking antibiotics.”

“I have been a big fan of Chinese medicine for a long time because it works,” Paltrow said.


Gwyneth Paltrow sings Bette Davis Eyes

Facts and Details reports of popular Hollywood movies in China, in 1994, The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford, became the first American feature film to be shown legally in Chinese cinemas. Titanic was also a big box office hit. Pearl Harbor was the second highest grossing film ever in China.

Then in 2006, Chinese sensors approved Miami Vice and left a steamy love scene with Collin Farrell and Gong Li largely intact.

In July 2009, Transformers 2 became China’s biggest box office hit replacing Titanic.

Discover Looking Like Jessica Alba in China

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, cultural differences, family values, government, media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Separation of Church and State — Part 1/3

January 6, 2011

In 1998, something dire happened in Washington DC while President Clinton was in the White House and the GOP controlled both houses of Congress.

Clinton must have made a compromise with the GOP since in the 105th Congress, the GOP held 55 seats in the Senate and Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House with 228 GOP votes of 435.

I have no idea what Clinton got out of the deal, but what happened was a huge victory for America’s conservative evangelical Christians. It also created a threatening situation for most of the world’s population.

These evangelicals are the same people who want to control women’s reproductive rights in the US and the same people who fight to block sex education designed to combat the spread of HIV AIDS.  These evangelicals are the same people that managed, while President G. W. Bush was living in the White House, to limit stem cell research possibly leading to many early deaths and much suffering among the living. 

To explore more on this topic, see Christian Today Australia – US evanglical engagement in politics is too partisan, say authors or Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right.

What President Clinton and the GOP majority in Congress did was turn the U.S. Department of State into a global advocate for organized religion.

For many in China, this blending of government with religion in the US may be of a particular concern since China has a history with Christianity that has often ended badly.

When the treaty was signed ending the First Opium War (1840-1842), the British Empire included a clause that forced China to open its doors to Christian missionaries.

A decade later, the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864) was led by a Christian convert that wanted to turn China into a Christian nation. In fact, Jonathan D. Spence wrote about this Christian convert in God’s Chinese Son.

In the end, more than twenty million were killed.  Ironically, Hong Xiuquan called the part of China he controlled the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace.

Then in 1900, there was the Boxer Rebellion (Righteous Harmony Society Movement), which was a popular peasant uprising to rid China of meddling Christian missionaries and foreigners.

An armed force made up of military from mostly Christian nations invaded China and ended the Boxer movement. The Christians stayed.

In Part 2, we will see why it is dangerous to allow a government to use taxpayer dollars to get into the business of spreading organized religion across the world.

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, cultural differences, politics, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China Moving – Part 2/2

January 5, 2011

 To maintain perspective, I will start this segment about poverty in China by citing the CIA World Factbook. The CIA report says that only 2.8% of China’s population lives in “absolute poverty”, while reporting that 12% live in poverty in the US.

India’s listing says 25% live in poverty. The poverty percentage for the United Kingdom (Britain) was fourteen. Zambia, the highest poverty rate I saw was at 86%.

The CIA says, “National estimates of the percentage of the population falling below the poverty line are based on surveys of sub-groups, with the results weighted by the number of people in each group. Definitions of poverty vary considerably among nations. For example, rich nations generally employ more generous standards of poverty than poor nations.

In fact, the 2010 Global Hunger Index says there were 925 million hungry people in the world. The index ranks countries on a 100-point scale, with zero being the best score (no hunger) and 100 being the worst.

China’s score was nine.

Al Jazeera’s Samah El-Shahat says, “The Chinese economic miracle dominates headlines around the world.… The economy there is predicted to grow at 8% up to 2010 and beyond, which is an incredible rate of development.”

To make this happen, people migrated to where the jobs are creating crowded cities and empty villages.

This segment starts out in Sichuan Province on a family farm where bringing in the crop falls to a young girl and her grandmother, Wei Shu Bin.

Wei Shu Bin says the young girl’s parents are away working in the city to earn money—”that is their way of taking care of me.”

In fact, the money sent home from the city has transformed the family’s life in the countryside. Before the parents went away, the family lived in a hut with a thatched roof reminiscent of the middle ages in Europe.

Today, they live in a larger house, but most of the village people are very old or very young because 80% have gone to work elsewhere.

Yang Xui Ying in the village market says, “We keep pigs and grow vegetables for sale in the market. We can support ourselves.”

The reason stated for so many leaving the villages to work in the cities is to provide a better future for their children so they can attend school. However, there is a downside to not having parents at home—the crime rate among rural Chinese teens has gone up.

To build a modern China with improved lifestyles requires sacrifice and hard work. It doesn’t come free.

Return to China Moving – Part 1

______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, cultural differences, economy, education, family values | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »