“...the government led me...”
Ah well, that explains everything. ;>)
Seriously, the government didn’t do those things. What I mean by “fusion between government and religion” is as a matter of law. There was no law saying there had to be a Creche in the town park at Christmas, or that teachers had to read the Bible and lead prayers in school. Most people were Christians and they were free to do those things. There were no laws involved.
Now there ARE laws involved. Some negative, like banning of Bible reading and prayer in government schools, and some positive like the “faith based initiative” which is also a matter of law. Government should not be making any laws regarding religion at all and if it didn’t, you’d be free to read your Bible and pray, even in “public schools” and to practice your religion in any other way you chose, anywhere you chose. Aren’t your for that? I am. But the only way you can have that is to get Government out of religion, and religion out of government.
Hank
I got into a debate with someone who supported the National Endowment for the Arts. I asked him if he believed in the separation of church and state. They said, "yes." I asked him if it would be acceptable use of NEA funds to create a ten foot crucifix and put it up in a public park. He said, "no, because that's religious based and violates the separation of church and state." I then asked him why Christo's "Piss Christ" could be funded by the NEA. If the separation of church and state means the NEA can't support a religious viewpoint, doesn't it also mean they can't insult a religious viewpoint?
Backed into a corner, he could not admit that his viewpoint of the first amendment was that it was okay to silence speech with which he disagreed, but to fund speech of which he was supportive. He kind of lamely said, "Well, if you put stuff like Piss Christ out of the way, all the NEA could fund would be stuff so banal it would be meaningless. I posited that the NEA should be eliminated, and Art should be funded by those who wished to support it, not by taxpayers who were often offended by the art for which they were paying. Of course, this got back to goring his ox. The NEA sent money to him. He couldn't find someone who would pay their own money for his work. Therefore, the NEA was good, cause it gave him money.
Seriously the government did do those things, and in the last sixty years you and the left have switched the government into banning those things that it did until the sixties, the government is now hostile to Christianity and is an aggressor against it.