Separate Your Church from My State

“’In God We Trust’ I don’t believe it would sound any better if it were true” –Mark Twain

         While searching for relevant articles regarding the upcoming elections, I was struck by this article in The Statesman called “Texas a Battleground for Church and State Issues.” Never mind that the words “Texas” and “Battleground” have not been in the same sentence while talking about elections in my entire life. What bothers me about the content of the article is not that people have faith in religion and wish to express their feelings, what bothers me is the clear attempt by people to falsify history. They claim this country as being founded as a Christian Nation and they wish to assert faith into government, schools, and town meetings. For example, some town hall meetings are opened with prayer, and often even have a pastor or priest leading in the prayers. I could spend a large portion of this editorial disproving this assertion that America was founded a Christian Nation with hundreds of quotes, letters, articles, and historical documents. This would be a waste of time. However I would rather cut to a deeper implication that is hinted at every time I hear this argument as being founded by a Christian Nation. It seems that some religious people are of the belief that non-believers wish to take their religion or religious freedoms away. When in reality non-believers just want it understood that public money has no business being used for any religion, ever. Many politicians are religious, which is not the issue at hand. The issue comes into play when dictating policies. Some politicians go so far as to cite the bible as reason for policy (global warming, abortion, education), in place of scientific evidence. Rick Perry himself claims that separation of church and state is the work of Satan which begs the question, how many day to day decisions does he make for all Texans that involve his fear of Satan? While I whole heartedly believe that people have a right to believe in anything they wish, they do not have the right to make public policy based off of their religious belief. Perry goes on to claim, “Satan runs across the world with his doubt and with his untruths and what have you and one of the untruths out there that is driven is that people of faith should not be involved in the public arena”. Perry misses the obvious point that there is no evidence of Satan running anywhere, nor is known how fast or slow Satan does run. Governor Perry makes the blatantly false accusation that he or anyone for that matter is under threat of having their beliefs taken away. Over 90 percent of Texans are a variation of Christianity, while less than 5 percent are nonbelievers. This claim that Christian Texans are under threat by secularist is nonsensical. The United States is unique in that it has an amendment that goes out of its way to clarify that no law shall be made respecting a religion or prohibiting one. I should point that if people feel so strong about living in a religious country that is founded on and whose laws are based off religion, they should think of relocating to Iran, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan which are all countries who enforce laws based off the religion of the majority. The point of the first amendment was that people are able to practice whatever belief that they would like and the state would not take sides nor persecute those that are in the minority.

Holy Cheerleaders

On October 19^th in “In the Pink”, a satirical political commentary blog created by Eileen Smith a local blogger, an article was posted titled “We’ve Got Spirit, The Holy Spirit.” It is a commentary about cheerleaders in an East Texas school district that have filed lawsuits against the school district for forbidding the cheerleaders to make religious oriented signs for school football games. A judge has signed an injunction siding with the cheerleaders allowing them to bring the religious signs. Furthermore Rick Perry expressed his support for the cheerleaders saying “We’re a nation that’s built on the concept of free expression of ideas,” Perry said. “We’re also a culture built upon the concept that the original law is God’s law, outlined in the Ten Commandments. If you think about it, the Kountze cheerleaders simply wanted to call a little attention to their faith and to their Lord.” Eileen Smith satires the story by making referring to her childhood as a cheerleader whose only interest were mundane teenage activities.

                While the article made me laugh and was well written it is obvious she believed the cheerleaders are ridiculous. But I have to disagree, while I am an atheist and believe in an extreme enforcement of separation of church and state, I am a firm believer in freedom of expression and if cheerleaders and audience members at a football game wish to show their belief and praise in a higher power that is by all means their constitutional right. Having said that, I would be very curious to see how quickly these same people would stand up for freedom of expression if someone should up to their game with a sign that reads for example “Allahu Akbar…GO KOUNTZE HIGH!!!!”  Rick Perry on the other hand is as comical as ever. His assertion that our law is based off the Ten Commandments, which is a very common misconception, is nonsense. Of the Ten Commandments only four are laws, only two of which are serious and all four have exceptions. My concluding point is if people are not willing to support freedom of expression without exception then there is not freedom of expression only freedom to be intolerant. 

Costs and Punishments

I found an article called “Texans Deserve Relief from Prison Healthcare Costs” in the Austin Statesman written by the Editorial Board in an elaboration to a previous article by Mike Ward about prison healthcare cost and how it burdens tax payers. In the editorial it is argued that older low risk prisoners that require expensive healthcare treatments should be released into nursing homes because of the cost the state to harbor these people. The article goes on to give several examples of prisoners that cost the tax payers a sizable amount of tax dollars. In one case it was discovered that 10 inmates cost the state 1.9 million dollars in a single year to cover their medical costs. The article goes on to suggest the state should allow nonviolent costly offenders out of prison to help with this rising cost.

                Now, while I do agree the state of Texas puts too many people in jail for minor offences and we also spend too much money to incarcerate these people, I have to question the logic of this editorial. While I am sure that some of these people would be able to take care of themselves just fine if they were not in prison. There would also be a percentage of people that would not be able to cover the healthcare costs. After all, medical cost is the number 1 reason people are put into bankruptcy. It seems to be that this burden on the Texas taxpayer would be shifted to Medicare and Medicaid. While it certainly would help Texas’ taxpayers, it seems to be just another example of attempting to put a band-aid on an issue that is hemorrhaging.

Private Prisons and Immigrants

Last week in the Texas Tribune an article was posted called Advocacy Groups Target Private Prisons for Immigrants. This caught my eye because I have written a paper on the subject of private prisons in the past. For those that are unaware of the subject The United States incarcerates more people, not just per capita but in total population, than any other country in the world. We also are one of the few nations that use privately ran prisons to keep a percentage of these prisoners. Here in Texas there are a handful of private prisons that have discovered a "niche" for incarcerating undocument immigrants that are arrested. The article is about a group that is calling on congress to reject funding that would increase these prisons capacity. I believe this issue is important for a variety of reasons most importantly, should sending people to prison that profit on its incarceration rate be a business model?