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Heaven Help Us
The Basically Brooklyn Series

On April 13, 2010, the Florida State Legislature approved sending God to school by striking a 130 year-old provision from the Florida Constitution. The provision they erased reads:

"No revenue of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof shall ever be taken from the public treasury directly or indirectly in aid of any church, sect, or religious denomination or in aid of any sectarian institution."

The removal of such literature effectively does away with the separation of Church and State.

With among the highest unemployment rates in the country and shrinking revenues, forcing teacher lay-offs, you would think the Florida State Legislature would have more important things to do.

And what about the teachers they haven't laid off? Can you imagine having God in your classroom? What if He fails a test? Would you dare give Him an F? Aren't teachers under enough stress already? Florida is the lightening capital of the world. How many more teachers can Florida afford to lose? Of course, it would be interesting to get His opinion on Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

From George Washington on, every president of this nation has ended his Oath of Office by uttering the phrase, "So help me God." We have never been a Godless Nation, nor have we ever been a nation frowning upon the religious interpretation of any individual of our nation.

Our country's very appeal is the religious freedom enjoyed by Christians, Baptists, Jews, Muslims and the countless others I may be too ignorant to know. Our founding fathers, many of whom fled religious persecution set this country up, not to be a society without God, but to assure its people they would never have anything to fear in worshiping God as they see fit.

In a communist society, there is no God. There are no houses of worship. There is only the state. Many Communist nations struggle to keep God out of their society and much of their society prays for the enviable freedom enjoyed in America.

In many regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, there is room for only one God. This is a state endorsed religion, defying separation of Church and State. Our fathers and grandfathers from every religion fought and died to prevent the Godless state of Nazi Germany from achieving their goal of world domination.

Our sons and daughter are dying today to keep the ideology of one God, one religion from our shores. After all, this is the goal of Al Qaida and the Taliban to rid the world of non-believers.

The Taliban is committed to the teaching of God and so enforce the religious laws of the Koran upon its people. Those who do not obey the laws of the Koran suffer the consequences of the ruling party.

Stoning an infidel is just one of the many ways the governing party keeps undesirables from stepping outside of religious law. While stoning is still a ways off in the State of Florida, the way of the Taliban may well be the goal of the Florida State Legislature or maybe the Florida State Legislature just enjoys the idea of being stoned. After all, Florida has a rather high amount of marijuana related arrests.

We, in America, are very strong believers in the basic teachings of all religion. God is good, loving and just. He is quite alive and well, in this nation of ours and seems content with skipping the whole education process. Besides, if God is all-powerful and all knowing, what could we possibly teach Him? Whether we celebrate Christmas, or Hanukah, or Kwanzaa, is of no consequence to any.

Doing away with the separation of Church and State in any region of this country is the first step toward acknowledging; accepting and opening a door our fathers and children once fought and continue to fight, to keep shut.

Maybe the Florida Legislature has been out in the sun too long thinking Florida is no better than a communist state without God. Or maybe they just like the way the Taliban does things and want to usher in a new world order. After all, the constitution has been good enough for Floridians for 130 years. The Separation of Church and State was of the utmost importance to many of our founding fathers.

If America isn't good enough for our Florida Legislature, then maybe they should occupy another nations real estate, never mind the well- paid seats of the Florida Legislature. After all, through the will of God this nation has risen up from 13 little old colonies to the greatest nation of the world. Don't let the will of a few legislators change that.

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