{"id":5090,"date":"2010-10-19T10:26:06","date_gmt":"2010-10-19T10:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/odonnell-questions-separation-of-church-and-state.html"},"modified":"2010-10-19T10:26:06","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T10:26:06","slug":"odonnell-questions-separation-of-church-and-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/odonnell-questions-separation-of-church-and-state.html","title":{"rendered":"O’Donnell questions separation of church and state — UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two weeks before the election, controversial Catholic Senate candidate — and notable non-witch — Christine O’Donnell waded into the issue of church-state separation in a broadcast debate.   <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
From the AP: <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\"image6971859_370x278.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.<\/p>\n

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O’Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons’ position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.<\/p>\n

Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that “religious doctrine doesn’t belong in our public schools.”<\/p>\n

“Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” O’Donnell asked him.<\/p>\n

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O’Donnell asked: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?”<\/p>\n

Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.<\/p>\n

“You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp,” said Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone, adding that he thought it raised questions about O’Donnell’s grasp of the Constitution. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are more details here.<\/a> <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
 Stay tuned. I don’t think we’ve heard the last about this. <\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Good old Tony Rossi, reader and blogger and otherwise cool dude, alerted me in the comments to this account<\/a> in the Washington Post, which also links to the debate itself. Check it out. <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks before the election, controversial Catholic Senate candidate — and notable non-witch — Christine O’Donnell waded into the issue of church-state separation in a broadcast debate.    From the AP: Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\nO'Donnell questions separation of church and state - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/odonnell-questions-separation-of-church-and-state.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"O'Donnell questions separation of church and state - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two weeks before the election, controversial Catholic Senate candidate — and notable non-witch — Christine O’Donnell waded into the issue of church-state separation in a broadcast debate.    From the AP: Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/odonnell-questions-separation-of-church-and-state.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-19T10:26:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/image6971859_370x278-thumb-250x187-18670.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"O'Donnell questions separation of church and state - 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