“...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Recognize that? It's is text from Article VI, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. But we know that it is generally ignored when push comes to shove. What chance would a Muslim, a B'Hai person, a Buddhist or an atheist have of getting elected to most offices in the United States? For that matter, how many Americans would vote for a Jewish person or a Unitarian?

Religion is supposed to be a private, deeply personal matter, not something that appears on a bumper sticker or in the lobby of a courthouse.

Here's another familiar quotation, from the Bill of Rights: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...” But what about the "faith-based" initiative that is being promulgated by the White House? If permitted by Congress to stand as designed, it would exempt certain privileged religions from obeying the law of the land with regard to civil rights. Those privileged religions are bound to be conservative Christian sects, unless you really, really believe that the Bush administration is going to give grants to Hindu community centers and Wiccan organizations. (And if you do, I've got some voting machines in Florida I'll be happy to sell you.

John Adams, when he signed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797, said “The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

Thomas Jefferson said "“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry. . . .”

And from James Madison: “Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”

Fundamentalist Christians (and even not-so-fundamentalist Christians) are constantly reminding us that our forefathers founded the nation on Judeo-Christian principles, and that they were men of faith. However, this is simply not true. Jefferson, though he greatly admired Jesus, was not a Christian, and stated so many times. Benjamin Franklin, though raised a Calvinist, became a Deist. John Adams was wary of all organized religion, and James Madison was very critical of it.

Because of the Bush crowd's pandering to very conservative Christians, the separation of church and state has all but disappeared, the civil rights of gay citizens are questioned, and the quest to cure terrible diseases has been stymied. Unless mainstream Christians and citizens of other religions (and citizens of no religion) fight back, and soon, the very thin line between church and state will become blurred beyond recognition.