The Constitution Of The United States Of Betty

Betty Dowdell is a Christian apologist who lives out here in my neck of the woods. She's the author of "How to be a Christian Without Being Annoying", and is touted as a home-spun apologist who speaks in plain words for the average Christian. She claims that most Christians don't even know what the word "apologist" means, so, basically, she dumbs it down for them into easily-digested chunks.

How sweet.

This doesn't make her any less annoying, regardless of what her book is titled. She repeats so many of the same, old, tired arguments that it make me tired to think about even starting to address them all. Again. However, one article she wrote stood so far out there with the astonishing assertion below that I couldn't let it go - I had to address it. It's just, well, a bald-faced lie. I mean, most of the time apologists leave themselves some sort of "out" so that they can later claim that they didn't really mean what they said, and that us nasty church-state separation supporters are obviously quoting them out of context, or some such.

Please, I strongly encourage you to read her whole article. You'll agree that her statement below definitely means what it says, even in context with the rest of the article. Here, just check it out for yourself:

[Betty Dowdell] ...the Constitution specifically provides for a Christian chaplain for each branch of Congress.

Well then Betty, I guess you won't have any trouble pointing out the specific part of the Constitution that actually says this.

More below the fold...

You know, because in the Constitution that us sane people use, the only two references to religion, in the text of the entire document, are contained in the First Amendment, and in Article VI. In the First Amendment it says:

[link] "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

...and in Article. VI, where it (heh) specifically prohibits religious tests for public office:

[link] "...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

The only other sideways, negative reference to religion, notable only by it's lack of religious language, is where the Constitution spells out the President's Oath Of Office. It does not contain the words "So help me God," as many gullible people believe. You can read the full text of it here in Article II, Section 1 if you'd like.

How many times do the words "God", "Jesus", or "Christianity" appear in the Constitution Betty?

What is that you say? Those words do not appear in the Constitution at all, in any context, ever?

Hmnn.

So how can you write that the United States was intended to be a "Christian Nation" when the controlling legal document that we formed our country under says no such thing? Just who here has an agenda?

I vote for Betty the aspiring Christian Theocrat.

As for the exact, verbatim phrase "separation of church and state" being in the Constitution - no, it's not. However, the intention is very clear in the First Amendment to anyone with an ounce of common sense and no "Christian Nation" ax to grind. The words "separation of powers" do not appear in the text of the Constitution either, but no one in their right mind would claim that since the literal words aren't there that the concept doesn't exist very clearly within the Constitution.

You know, unless they had an agenda or something.