The Thinking Atheist: Seth Andrews- Interviewing Andrew Torrez: 'Christianity,Crimes, and The Constitution'

Source:The Thinking Atheist- The Donald President Donald Trump, 45th POTUS. 

“Andrew Torrez, an attorney and host of “Opening Arguments,” joins Seth Andrews for an in-depth conversation about the law, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, church/state separation, and the Religious Right in the era of Trump.”

Source:The Thinking Atheist

I believe to believe in the First Amendment, as well as the Fourth Amendment, and I would add Fifth Amendment, you have to believe in the right to choose, the right to believe, the right to free expression and believe what you believe. Not saying you have to believe in religion and that America is a place and great place for Atheists and Agnostics such as myself, but that since this is not a communist state or any other kind of socialist state we believe that Americans have the constitutional right to practice or not practice religion.

The freedom to and from religion and that we also have the Separation of Church and State. The Freedom of Religion, but that covers everyone and every type of religion in America and that Atheists and Agnostics have the same right as Christian of all sects, Jews, Muslims., again of all sects, as well as everyone else that practices one form of religion or another. And that government literally stays the hell out of religion other than to protect the rights of all free Americans to practice or not practice religion.

That we’re not a communist or socialist state, but we’re not a theocracy or some other fascist state and we don’t tell Americans as a government how to practice or not practice religion and that government doesn’t operate based on religious beliefs, but governs under the U.S. Constitution.

The problem with America is not our Constitution or any of our constitutional amendments. The problem with America is that we have too many people who simply don’t believe in it and ignore it. The Christian-Right especially which are really Christian-Theocrats who believe that their interpretation of the Bible should be what governs us, not the actual text of the Constitution. And that Separation of Church and State doesn’t exist at all.

So now we not only have a Christian-Right that has been officially active at least since 1975 or so and played a big role in the 1976 presidential election and every election presidential or Congressional since, but we have a political party that’s basically dominated by the Christian-Right. The Republican Party today, is not the Barry Goldwater Constitutional-Conservative-Libertarian party that they became when they nominated Barry Goldwater for President in 1964 and then not only nominated Ronald Reagan for President in 1980, but put Reagan in power and helped Republicans wins back the Senate in 1980 for the first time in a generation.

The modern Republican Party is now a party that’s made up of Christian-Theocrats and Christian-Nationalists who believe they’re the real Americans and the Constitution only protects them and their rights and beliefs. And the Un-Americans ( anyone who disagrees with them on anything ) are invaders essentially and not deserving of the same rights and beliefs as the Christian-Nationalists in America. With the never-trumpers the Goldwater Conservatives in the party, now representing the minority in what once was a great conservative party in America and along with the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, perhaps the only two great conservative parties in the developed world.

Again, as a Liberal I believe in the freedom of religion, free choice, personal choice, personal; responsibility, but I also believe in free speech and the First Amendment in it’s entirety and that you have the right to your beliefs and I have the right in mine, but that you and big government or government in any form doesn’t have the right to force your beliefs on me.

I’ll allow you to make your case for why you believe what you believe, but you’re not going to be able to force your beliefs on me or any other free American in this country. That’s called the First Amendment which protects our Freedom of Religion, but also Freedom of Speech. and Separation of Church and State.  

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