Separation of Church and State - What Is SO HARD To Understand?

The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says (in part), "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .". There is absolutely no other reference in the Constitution to the so-called edict requiring separation of church and state. Simply that Congress will not establish a [understood as national] religion, nor will they interfere with the individual or organized group practice of religion. That's it. Period! End of discussion.

How do we get so bogged down in the issue of SOCAS? Notice the placement of this Amendment ... 1st! Not 6th, or 14th or 21st ... FIRST! That should tell us how much importance our founding fathers put upon this principle. It was the most important of all the considerations in the development of an embryonic Democratic Republic. The bottom line is that the Constitution restricts the government from meddling in the affairs of any church, supposedly protecting religious institutions from being dictated to by outside forces. Yet the government does so incessantly!

Where has the 'government of the people, for the people, and by the people' encroached upon our Constitution? Everything from -

1. 1. the removal of prayer (which was always voluntary during my years in school) in the public schools, to
   
2. 2. the display of manger scenes on public property at Christmas, to
   
3. 3. allowing suit for the removal of the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance (a person could just not say them if they didn't believe in God),
4. 4. the removal of the Ten Commandments and the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court from that courthouse, and, most recently,
5. 5. upset over the state of South Carolina offering a "Christian" license plate to S.C. motorists

Perhaps I can understand the rationale behind 1. (above), because if we did one, we should, in fairness, do them all. (The atheists prayer would be undoubtedly the shortest.) From daily opening prayers we could then adjourn directly to the cafeteria for lunch. (Hopefully, nobody would want to have a public blessing over their lunches, or the school day would be over by the time that was finished. In such a case it would be better to have something non-specific - and practical - like: "Dear Lord, please let me survive this tainted meal.")

There is something else provided for in our Constitution, it is called "States rights." Here are the items I personally think should be States Rights issues:

• 2. (above) - Is there something I fail to comprehend about the term "public property"? Is that not property that is either owned by or, at least open to the PUBLIC? And, are not church members of any persuasion also members of the PUBLIC? The term 'public' is all-inclusive, thereby encompassing even the dreaded and feared "Christians". You can display the Crescent of Islam, and the Menorah and Star of David of Judaism, and probably the symbols of Taoists, Hindus, Rastafarian's, Shakers, Quakers, Mennonites, Rosacrucians, Russian Orthodoxy, and Dukhobors. But, God help you if you should show any Christian symbols during the recurring annual period known as ... oh, yeah - CHRISTMAS!
• 3. (above) - DUH! If you don't understand that one, get somebody who speaks English to read it to you.
• 4. (above) - The architrave above the main west entrance to the Supreme Court of the United States bears the inscription "EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE LAW" (some obviously more 'equal' than others), and both the Supreme Court and the United States Congress open each session with prayers! Am I the only one having a problem with their demonstrated logic (or lack thereof) here?
• 5. (above) - According to the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina they offer well over 100 group-specific license plates, and will make specific plates available to any group or organization of appropriate size that requests them through the proper channels. Where is the problem there? If you don't want one, don't BUY one! They aren't FREE. You have to pay money and select the one you want! Sheeeesh ... dumb-ass.
  

States Rights, as well as individual rights, are slowly being eroded thanks to the efforts of idiots like Michael Newdow (3. above), who apparently sees himself as the 21st century reincarnation of atheist Madlyn Murray O'Hair (also O'Hare), and the conspiratorial, ultra left-wing ACLU (which was founded by a communist whose avowed purpose was to overthrow the government of the United States).

How can we make something so simply written, in our own native language, so complicated? It's called an agenda, and there are a lot of people with multiple agendas - each bringing us one step closer to the elimination of our Democratic Republic.