Separation of Church and State
The separation of church and state is a very
important ideal to the members of our organization. We believe it is
essential to ensure that the government remains essentially neutral on
matters of religion, neither promoting certain religious views over
others nor punishing individuals for their religious beliefs (or
non-beliefs). The writings of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison make
it clear that they would agree with us: allowing the government to
become entangled with religion is bad for both religion and for
government. Unfortunately, the government currently seems to be
moving in the opposite direction. We believe that this will be bad
not only for us, but for everyone in a religious minority. Moreover,
this would be bad for the whole country in the long run since America
is nothing if it compromises its ideals of individual freedom.
Herb Silverman, a founding member of the SHL, is also one of our heroes since he successfully challenged South Carolina's unconstitutional law requiring certain religious beliefs of anyone holding public office. We are proud to say that Herb is now president of a national organization: The Secular Coalition for America. This group represents the viewpoint of non-religious Americans in Washington D.C.!
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