9th grade Civics Class...

my ass.

Huckabee, on Scarborough two minutes ago, said that people should take a 9th grade Civics Class to understand the Second Amendment. He says it only prevents the government from establishing a religion. It doesn't prevent the people from bringing religion to the government.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

For those of you who didn't pay attention in 9th grade Civics Class, these are the first words of the Constitution of the United States. [Oh, and I didn't put the first three words We the People in bold. Most copies of the document do it. Check out the link. It's to the National Archives. They even put them in red.]

So, here's the argument. If the people give the power to the government, isn't it the people who are saying no religious connection?

Huckabee seems to be stressing that it refers to the establishment of an official religion. Splitting hairs, if you ask me. You can infer that he means that while not being able to establish an official religion, it doesn't mean that the government can't adopt an official religion.

I don't think that We the People would be in favor of that.

Scarborough also asked Huckabee, in an Alex Trebek moment [Scarborogh's words, not mine.] about the phrase separation of church and state and where it came from. Huckabee showed his 9th Grade Civics Class brilliance and correctly responded that it was from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 and cannot be found anywhere in the Constitution.

Agreed. Jefferson did not want government to interfere with any individuals right to hold religious beliefs. Historically, in England, it was government policy that everyone had to swear allegiance to the Church of England and the persecution of Catholics, Puritans and others was the basis for this being written into the Constitution. However, it works both ways.

From the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom of 1779 that Jefferson engineered"

To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own.

Jefferson wrote extensively on what came to be known as the Establishment Clause. The above statement, I think, makes it pretty clear that he was talking about much more than the establishment of a religion in a narrow sense. He had a much broader sense. He's referring to anyone bringing their own belief to interfere with the exercise of government.

It goes both ways...