NASSAU COUNTY CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC. "The government is us, we are the government, you and I." Teddy Roosevelt

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Defending Religious Liberty

We hold these truths self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”. The document that contained these words was deemed a violation of church and state by the Creek Elementary School in Cupertino, California and was recently banned from the class room. The name of the document is The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. Is this what the founding fathers had in mind?

The first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…..”  No where is separation of church and state mentioned in this amendment or the constitution yet it is cited as the basis for expunging any reference to God. While Thomas Jefferson referred to “A wall of separation between church and state” in his letter to the Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association in 1802, he was referring to his opposition to a national religion created by government as was the case in England. The Church of England dictated how the people could worship. The puritans or separatists left England for the new world seeking freedom of religion not to separate the people from religion.

“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in any religious discipline has been delegated to the General government. It must then rest with the states.” Thomas Jefferson, letter to Samuel Miller, January 23, 1808

In November, the South Orange/Maplewood school district in New Jersey decided to ban all Christmas songs at holiday concerts. The reason noted was that some parents were offended. As Christmas carols do not endorse a particular religion, the effort to single out particular songs that make reference to God are unlawful and show the hostility to those of faith. Last year, the Bellmore school district on Long Island removed the federal holiday of Christmas from the calendar while including Yom Kippur. When this matter was brought to the attention of the local school board with the request to restore the federal holiday and include Easter and Jewish holidays, the board refused and instead restored Christmas. A reasonable standard would be common sense.

What’s your response to the following quote? Does it apply to where we are today? You be the judge.

“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to God that made us.”   Abraham Lincoln, Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863.

The Nassau County Civic Association, Inc will assist any Nassau County resident who has been subjected to religious discrimination as outlined in our article “The Constitution and religious liberty”. This assistance will be in the form of filing complaints with local elected officials and with various federal, state and local agencies. We will also arrange for a public showing of support against the entity and or governmental agency that has engaged in religious discrimination. 

Religious discrimination is illegal. There are several public interest law firms that specialize in religious discrimination cases. These firms often take cases without charging a fee. The following is a list of law firms: