Mike Pence declares that Americans have no right to 'freedom from religion'

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/mike-pence-freedom-from-religion/

Former Vice President Mike Pence claimed during a Wednesday appearance on Fox Business that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution does not protect Americans from having other people's faiths forced upon them.

"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," it states.

In fact, there are no references to a supreme being anywhere in the Constitution, because the Founding Fathers were adamantly opposed to centralized religious power as well as requiring individuals to subscribe to any particular denomination.

The concept of separation of church and state was sacrosanct to men like President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in his 1776 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom that "setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time" and that "to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."

*snip*

[reymega life]

1. he doesn't know the first amendment

and separation of church and state

[MerryHolidays]

2. Neither does today's US Supreme Court nt

[underpants]

3. I've heard this from thumpers. It's fairly new

Their idea is that the government can’t tell churches what to do. That’s it. Not that religion and governance are to be separate as everyone knows.

[liberal N proud]

4. He doesn't know the history of why America was a refuge from forced religion

[Mr.Bill]

5. And that's why Mike Pence was a radio talk show host and not a constitutional lawyer. n/t

[FalloutShelter]

6. Ding

🛎

[cilla4progress]

7. Originalists

my ass!

[republianmushroom]

8. Pence, the hell I don't.

[republianmushroom]

9. Pence, the hell I don't.

[elleng]

10. '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.'

[Iggo]

11. Always safe to go after us atheists first.

Straight outa the playbook.

[Wicked Blue]

12. I demand freedom from Pence

and all his repugnant ilk

[roamer65]

24. I second your motion.

[sop]

13. This idea isn't new.

"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country." - Jerry Falwell (1976)

[Abolishinist]

14. Well, when the XTIAN's start coming for the Jews,

I recommend that Kudlow be FIRST on the list!

What rancid, disgusting, vile vulgar pieces of Reich-Wing filth.

UPDATE:
Upon digging further, I found the following:

Kudlow has been married three times:[3] In 1974, he married Nancy Ellen Gerstein, an editor in The New Yorker magazine's fiction department, with the marriage lasting about a year. In 1981, he married Susan (Cullman) Sicher, whose grandfather was businessman Joseph Cullman and whose great-grandfather was businessman Lyman G. Bloomingdale.[61] The Washington wedding was presided over by U.S. District Judge John Sirica. In 1986, he married Judith "Judy" Pond, a painter and Montana native.[62]

In the mid-1990s, Kudlow left Bear Stearns and entered a 12-step program in order to deal with his addictions to cocaine and alcohol. He subsequently converted to Catholicism under the guidance of Father C. John McCloskey III.[3][63]

[reymega life]

16. this is why I say guns are a necessity

because of this lynchmobs and hatred.

[Abolishinist]

19. It gets worse, or in popular parlance, par for the course...

The priest, C. John McCloskey III, who 'guided' him through his conversion?

McCloskey was credibly accused of groping a woman who had sought spiritual direction from him in 2002. He was subsequently removed from his position as the director of the Catholic Information Center, and a $977,000 settlement with the woman was reached in 2005. Opus Dei received a special contribution from an anonymous donor to pay the settlement, and stated they were investigating other allegations of misconduct by McCloskey.

McCloskey was previously known for having helped convert a number of people to Catholicism, including Newt Gingrich, Sam Brownback, Lawrence Kudlow, Robert Novak, and Bernard Nathanson, an anti-abortion activist who was converted from being a pro-choice NARAL Pro-Choice America founder in his earlier years as a doctor, where he performed abortions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._John_McCloskey

[niyad]

23. Welcome to our DU family.

[Marcuse]

15. Mother wouldn't like it.

[Wounded Bear]

17. Without freedom from religion, there is no freedom of religion...nt

[spanone]

18. Mike belongs to two cults

[panader0]

20. I'm not sure of what world I'm living in anymore.

[Cha]

21. Shut UP, pence.. YOu're Stupid and a

little chicken shit.

[keithbvadu2]

22. Freedom of religion

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/?no-ist= ;

Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. "Who does not see," he wrote, "that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?" Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.

[niyad]

25. May he, and his enablers, receive everything they deserve.

[aeromanKC]

26. Not so sure the framers would be too keen on that idea.

Just saying.....

[Xolodno]

27. The last time a theocracy ran the government...

...they called it the dark ages.

[SunSeeker]

28. Fuck off, Pence. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

29. Ron Reagan:

[JoeOtterbein]

30. Perfect...

...timing with the truth!

Again!

[Rhiannon12866]

32. I thought of this immediately, just took me a minute to find it!

[JoeOtterbein]

34. Great Job!

(little fist pumping emoji!) Back to ya!

[JoeOtterbein]

31. K n R ! Thanks for posting!

The important stuff!

Again!

[azureblue]

33. This is great!

My religion forbids, as proscribed in Leviticus, eating pork. My religion also allows me, as proof of my faith, to beat pork eaters with a rolled up newspaper. Now where does this pork eating Pence live? If can force his religion on me, then I for sure will force mine on him..

Oh, and BTW, Leviticus forbids going to church if you wear glasses. (Approach the altar of the Lord if you have a defect in your vision). Hmm, I'm going to need 2 rolled up newspapers..

[Stuart G]

35. Kick & Rec. I am glad he said this. In the long run, he will have to explain it over, and over, &

over and over and over and over and over and over and over...........

Much too stupid to know how stupid that statement is/was and always will be. Because of this statement and
his stupid ignorant explanation, and what follows this..Pence may have thrown away his chance to be President or ever nominated to become President.

And I am glad he said this...Pence is one of the biggest & STUPIDEST assholes around, and this proves it.

[Gaugamela]

36. Hey Pence: *JESUS WAS A LIAR!* -- Prove me wrong!

Hah! You have no right to “freedom from sacrilege”, because the 1st amendment still obtains while you kiss Jesus’ scrawny crucified ass (he was so butt hurt he shat on the cross). And anyway, isn’t getting caught and crucified by the Romans immediate disqualification from Messiah-ship? Wouldn’t tfg call your Jesus a loser? “Wet noodle Jesus, the world’s biggest loser! Such a shame. I hear he was kind of smart, but not as smart as me!”

(This could get fun.)

[lindysalsagal]

37. I'm glad this question is now part of the official dialogue.

Even if pencil had to be the one to start it.