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I thought the issue here was "separation" of church and state? Where did this come from?
It is implicit in the Constitution. Whatever the founding fathers meant by the first amendment, we, as a society, have chosen to interpret to mean that no state agency may give the appearance of endorsement by clearly sectarian displays. If you don't like it, either get an amendment passed, or do what you are currently doing: elect officials who will choose judges who will reinterpret the Constitution.
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Ok, what impact does a government have on an individuals way of life? Quite a bit.
Your initial comment was that the founding fathers were trying to set up an "American way of life". This is not true. They took the "American way of life" as a given, not something to be set up. The founding fathers did not feel the need to write a Constitution that would impose a "way of life" on society, and they especially did not endorse writing a Constitution that would impose a "way of life" on future generation in perpetuity.
At any rate, what the founding fathers did or did not intend is irrelevant. What is under discussion is how we, the currently living, decide that we are going to organize our society today.
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The assault has been on since 62 when they removed prayer from school. Now you want God taken out of the courtroom, prayer out of everything, and God wiped from the pledge.
No one advocating closing down the churches, nor mandating a set doctrine that the churches would be required to teach, nor rounding up the Christians and placing them in re-education camps. Christian have and will continue to have the right to practice their religion in peace, and even to try to proselytize with their own efforts.
All anyone is trying to do is prevent the state from implicitly endorsing religion by the display of sectarian iconography.
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Ok, tell me how the commandments being presented at the front of a courthouse is congress making a law respecting the establishment of a religion and the FREE EXERCISE THEREOF.
It is implicitly promoting the beliefs of those who hold the ten commandments sacred.
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What law was passed?
It is in the Constitution, the supreme law of the land.