On 25 Jan 2006 07:56:12 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , Gunner says...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

You will notice it also forbids the free expression of religion. Not
to mention freedom of speech.

Good, you have the full text there. But you are still uncertain
about what it means. Your comment at the end indicates some
confusion and is flatly incorrect. Lay it out in its entirety,
the authors were quite stingy with words even if dead-on gramatically
correct:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.
Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press.
Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people..."

and so on.

The first part is the 'establishment' clause. That guarantees
freedom *from* religion, the govenment cannot create state
religions. The second is the free exercise clause which gives
freedom *of* religion - they cannot ban or restrict it with laws.

Odd that an intelligent man like you can put 2+2 and get 3.

The establishment clause guarentees you freedom from GOVERNMENT
mandated religion. Period. It mentions nothing about non government
religion. Not in the work place, nor in your neighborhood, nada. If
you moved into an apartment house with born againers all around
you...they can preach all night long unless there is a previous local
noise ordinance or rule in the lease.

Notice this stuff only applies TO THE GOVENMENT. None of this
applies to anyone else - corporations, private individuals, etc.

Good boy. Im glad to see you are learning.

Im still waiting for your cites on the claim you made about :freedom
From religion:

See comments above. For further details take out a book on constituional
law. But those are the standard views of the document. You can put
whatever spin you want on the document, but if you tried to bluster your
way through a first year law class on it you would be laughed out of
the room.

Jim

Blink blink..you missed the boat again. Bummer. Well keep up the good
fight Jim.

Gunner

"Deep in her heart, every moslem woman yearns to show us her tits"
John Griffin