Constitutional Rights - The Separation of Church and State

Sunday, July 27, 2003

By Michael Opitz (mopitz@mindspring.com)

There are many of us who have read the U.S. Constitution, and as Americans, we strongly support it. Those who have served in the military have pledged their lives to defend it. We, as a nation, may have disagreements over the interpretation of the constitution, but we have the courts to make the decisive rulings that guide us.

However, it is life and problems that surround us, which forms the issues and initiates debates that eventually wind their way to the highest court in the land. Those issues of perspective and life combined with current laws and past rulings modify and shape future laws and future behaviors for U.S. citizens and non-citizens alike.

The court has ruled that there is a separation between church and state. We can still debate the issues surrounding that ruling, but never-the-less that is the ruling, and it is the law of the land. So, what would happen if it were discovered that a federal government agency was funneling money to a group of citizens who then used that money to build hundreds of churches across the country? Would politicians and government bureaucrats go to jail if it were proven in court that government money indeed was actually funneled to religious groups?

Once exposed, publicly funded churches would become a national scandal, and the revelation would be analyzed from every perspective in the in all media outlets. We would all have to look carefully at this conspiracy between the religious groups and the government to understand why this happened and to understand the goals and objectives of those who concocted the scheme. We would also want to know the hidden agendas of the people who planed and implemented the plot. The planners would know that they eventually would be discovered, reputations ruined, careers tarnished, and possible jail terms for the central culprits.

Then there would be the question of what would be done with the churches that already had been built and filled with worshipers. Would buildings and property be sold off to the church members? Probably not because the structures would have been built with government money, and therefore tainted by the crime. The church members would not be allowed to benefit from the crime. After the all the hand wringing and contentious debate, the churches most likely would be razed and the land sold off to the highest bidder, much in the same way the assets of failed "Saving and Loans" were sold off to the private sector.

Is this a reasonable outcome for this constitutional mental exercise? There might be other outcomes, and I think that most people would express their very strong feelings on the highly charged debate that would consume our country. Congress surely would enact new laws while in the midst of another national crisis.

Next question. Are foreign nations and their citizens subject to the same U.S. constitutional laws while in the United States? To some extent the answer is yes. Typically foreign nationals do not have all the protections of the Constitution and most certainly foreign governments have no protection under the Constitution. But, are foreign governments and foreign nationals entitled to special exemptions to the laws of the United States that apply to U.S. citizens and the U.S. government? Other countries' actions within the United States are subject to Federal laws and treaties, but all treaties and laws are subject to the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court.

We have, in this exercise, stated the obvious for any well-informed reader of the Constitution and for what point? Now that the framework of the argument has been discussed, let's then consider the following information. It has been commonly reported that the government of Saudi Arabia has funded the building of hundreds of Islamic Mosques across the United States. We will not discuss the Saudi's intent; that is an issue for other debates.

What we should be asking ourselves is how can a foreign government violate U.S. Constitutional law and have greater freedom for activities that are illegal for U.S. citizens and the U.S. government. Would we have allowed Nazi Germany to fund money through third parties and build thousands of Aryan Brotherhood Churches across the Unites States? What would have been our response if during the "Cold War," the former Soviet Union had sponsored Russian Orthodox Churches, which could have been controlled by the state? We need to verify the facts, review the laws, and act accordingly. The debate has begun, and a well-versed constitutional lawyer now has a potential job...


Michael Opitz
Michael is the 2nd Vice Chairman of the 6th District Republican Party of Georgia.