[Word re-definition project?}
A secular state would say nothing favorable about God, would not honor religious holidays, would not call the nation to prayer every year, would not print IN GOD WE TRUST on our money and post it in our courts, would not display the Ten Commandments in six places in or on our Supreme Court Building, would not hire military chapliains, senate chaplains, and prison chaplains, and would not allow a state like Ohio to adopt WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE as a state motto, and would not allow tax exemptions to religious organizations and tax deductions for donations to them.
America is FAITH-FRIENDLY AND GOD-FRIENDLY. The country has no state church though and treats all faiths equally under the law. I think that is what you may have meant by "secular". Secular is the wrong word.
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Do you know why America needs a seperation of church and state? Because the extreme religious nutjobs want to create a theocracy. As far as I know the Netherlands haven't got a seperation of church and state, we even have a few christian parties in the government, but they are mostly sensible people who allow others to live in freedom.
Do a search of this imbecile's posts on CF and you'll see what an oxymoron his username is. He tries to say that the ACLU backs pedophilia, and his ilk just cheer him on.
"A secular state would say nothing favorable about God, would not honor religious holidays, would not call the nation to prayer every year, would not print IN GOD WE TRUST on our money and post it in our courts, would not display the Ten Commandments in six places in or on our Supreme Court Building, would not hire military chapliains, senate chaplains, and prison chaplains, and would not allow a state like Ohio to adopt WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE as a state motto, and would not allow tax exemptions to religious organizations and tax deductions for donations to them."
A secular state would say nothing favorable about God, would not honor religious holidays, would not call the nation to prayer every year, would not print IN GOD WE TRUST on our money and post it in our courts, would not display the Ten Commandments in six places in or on our Supreme Court Building, would not hire military chapliains, senate chaplains, and prison chaplains, and would not allow a state like Ohio to adopt WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE as a state motto, and would not allow tax exemptions to religious organizations and tax deductions for donations to them. Sounds like my kind of placeThe country has no state church though and treats all faiths equally under the law. Yeah, OK, if by "all faiths" you mean "most denominations of Christianity".
@anevilmeme: Of course we know why. The USA are liberal in their values. Though many identify themselfes as conservatives, they are not, at least when it comes to their values. The fundies know that, and it drives them crazy.
A secular state would say nothing favorable about God, would not honor religious holidays, would not call the nation to prayer every year, would not print IN GOD WE TRUST on our money and post it in our courts, would not display the Ten Commandments in six places in or on our Supreme Court Building, would not hire military chapliains, senate chaplains, and prison chaplains, and would not allow a state like Ohio to adopt WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE as a state motto, and would not allow tax exemptions to religious organizations and tax deductions for donations to them.
While I agree that he is wildly off on his definition of "secular," he does have a point. is very "faith-friendly." It just pisses the fundies off that America is (or at least is supposed to be) all faith-friendly. Yes we have a statue of Moses in the US Supreme Court building. He's right next to the staues of Buddah, Confucious,, Mohammad, Menes, Hammurabi, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Augustus, Justinian, Charlemagne, King John Lackland, Louis IX, Hugo Grotius, William Blackstone, John Marshall, and Napoleon. It's not exactly Christo-centric or even religious-centric, is it?
But that said, "secular" doesn't mean "anti-religious," just like "Agnostic" doesn't mean "anti-Christian."
"A secular state would say nothing favorable about God, would not honor religious holidays, would not call the nation to prayer every year, would not print IN GOD WE TRUST on our money and post it in our courts, would not display the Ten Commandments in six places in or on our Supreme Court Building, would not hire military chapliains, senate chaplains, and prison chaplains, and would not allow a state like Ohio to adopt WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE as a state motto, and would not allow tax exemptions to religious organizations and tax deductions for donations to them."Indeed, and all those examples you cite are divisive and possibly unconstitutional. Certainly "In God We Trust" and "WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE" are easily proven untrue.
No, secular is the right word. The government is secular, and because it is secular it is religion-friendly. That's why the city I live in has churches for Presbyterians, Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Coservative Jews, Hassidic Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Unitarians, and more. No one gets to tell anyone else where to worship, when to worship, or what/whom to worship, or how to worship. You get to believe and practice as you wish without interference from the government (so long as your practice does not infringe on anyone else's right to worship or right to refuse to worship).
Now, they complain that in the schools it is forbidden to pray, they celebrate a motto forced into the fifties, complain when a muslim asks for celebrating peacefully their ramadan, and, of course, the fact that the commandments have been removed, with uproar from conservatives............are these guys living in which world?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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