Church & State
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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The following is section 3 and 4 of my proposed constitutional amendment for further strengthening religious liberty, the free market of religious activity and maintaining the independence of the institutions of church and state from each other.
Sections 1 and 2 were printed in the Jan. 7, March 23, June 3 and July 3 letters to the editor. Those sections detailed the basic right itself and who is barred from prohibiting and infringing upon that right. While those two parts of the amendment broadly protect the ethical expression and exercise of religion or irreligion, parts 3 and 4 of the amendment are further and necessary safeguards that prevent authoritarian or totalitarian type intrusions into free market of religious choice and activity.
Section 3 of the proposed amendment – specific prohibitions:
Nor shall such aforementioned entities as a matter of policy or practice during peacetime or war subject the people domestic or foreign whether as a whole, by category, or as individuals to such horrendous and oppressive acts as the following because of their beliefs or disbelief, or as a means to achieving an end or an end in itself: campaigns of mass extermination, execution, torture, imprisonment, the dehumanization of slavery, vilification by propaganda as a means of conditioning the general populace to the eventual oppression and eradication of a targeted group, the obliteration of one’s faith or the lack thereof from existence and the annals of history, a forced exodus into a shrouded world of secrecy in one’s own community or exile from one’s native or adopted homeland among other myriad forms of persecution and prejudice; nor forced conversion to any form of theism, mysticism or atheism; undue intrusion into the interal affairs of one’s congregation, denomination or faith; the provision of involuntary aid of any sort to religious establishments or activities; compulsory adherence in public or private to sectarian laws, tenets and decrees; the sanctioning and support of religious cartels, publicity owned and operated churches, mandatory civic faith(s); and the incremental or outright establishment of an all-encompassing universal state church/state religion or militant state atheism as the collective faith for all in one’s own community, state, nation, continent or world.
Section 4 of the proposed amendment – Perpetuity Clause:
This amendment as orignally proposed and upon ratification shall always be considered to be in effect in its entirety throughout the existence of the union and the free people yet to come and shall only be modified for the express purpose of clarifying or strengthening its content through the sole means of a constitutional amendment. It shall not be repealed, diminished, or nullified by any act of an executive, legislative, judicial or bureaucratic branch of government at the local, state, national or international levels. Nor shall it be repealed, diminished or nullified by the means of elections or referendums, international treaties, a constitutional amendment(s) or convention (s). etc.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg[[In-content Ad]]
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The following is section 3 and 4 of my proposed constitutional amendment for further strengthening religious liberty, the free market of religious activity and maintaining the independence of the institutions of church and state from each other.
Sections 1 and 2 were printed in the Jan. 7, March 23, June 3 and July 3 letters to the editor. Those sections detailed the basic right itself and who is barred from prohibiting and infringing upon that right. While those two parts of the amendment broadly protect the ethical expression and exercise of religion or irreligion, parts 3 and 4 of the amendment are further and necessary safeguards that prevent authoritarian or totalitarian type intrusions into free market of religious choice and activity.
Section 3 of the proposed amendment – specific prohibitions:
Nor shall such aforementioned entities as a matter of policy or practice during peacetime or war subject the people domestic or foreign whether as a whole, by category, or as individuals to such horrendous and oppressive acts as the following because of their beliefs or disbelief, or as a means to achieving an end or an end in itself: campaigns of mass extermination, execution, torture, imprisonment, the dehumanization of slavery, vilification by propaganda as a means of conditioning the general populace to the eventual oppression and eradication of a targeted group, the obliteration of one’s faith or the lack thereof from existence and the annals of history, a forced exodus into a shrouded world of secrecy in one’s own community or exile from one’s native or adopted homeland among other myriad forms of persecution and prejudice; nor forced conversion to any form of theism, mysticism or atheism; undue intrusion into the interal affairs of one’s congregation, denomination or faith; the provision of involuntary aid of any sort to religious establishments or activities; compulsory adherence in public or private to sectarian laws, tenets and decrees; the sanctioning and support of religious cartels, publicity owned and operated churches, mandatory civic faith(s); and the incremental or outright establishment of an all-encompassing universal state church/state religion or militant state atheism as the collective faith for all in one’s own community, state, nation, continent or world.
Section 4 of the proposed amendment – Perpetuity Clause:
This amendment as orignally proposed and upon ratification shall always be considered to be in effect in its entirety throughout the existence of the union and the free people yet to come and shall only be modified for the express purpose of clarifying or strengthening its content through the sole means of a constitutional amendment. It shall not be repealed, diminished, or nullified by any act of an executive, legislative, judicial or bureaucratic branch of government at the local, state, national or international levels. Nor shall it be repealed, diminished or nullified by the means of elections or referendums, international treaties, a constitutional amendment(s) or convention (s). etc.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg[[In-content Ad]]
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