Nationalizing American Churches and Institutions
By Fay Voshell
AmericanThinker.com
November 8, 2015
Nationalizing institutions seems to be increasingly popular in America. The auto, energy, and health care industries are already largely taken over either outright or covertly brought under government control by means of onerous government regulations and the eternally vigilant bureaucratic leviathan. Apparently, even the environment is to be nationalized, what with the EPA and the global warming theorists seeking to control the water we use, the substances we utilize for energy and even the very air we breathe.
However, the creeping nationalization of America’s churches and their institutions has been less noted. But the current attempts by the Left to nationalize American churches, their institutions and properties is ongoing, with separation of church and state as defined by the Left rapidly becoming a handy tool used for government appropriation of American churches and for taking over church institutions such as hospitals, colleges, private schools, and charities.
Conservatives broadly interpret the First Amendment as guaranteeing the right of people of faith to practice their religion privately and publically and to develop institutions which reflect their faith and religious principles. They believe people of faith are guaranteed freedom to influence the public arenas of education, politics, law, business and the arts.
But for the Left, the First Amendment restricts the practice of religion, which is defined as a completely private matter. Prayer and religious rituals are to be confined to the privacy of the home and church buildings. Religion is seen as having absolutely no right to intrude itself into society at large. As the case of Coach Joe Kennedy reveals, even public prayer of an individual is a justifiable reason for being fired. Kelvin Cochran, former Atlanta firefighter, was fired for writing about biblical views on sexuality. He was told to keep his religious opinions private.
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