{"id":11450,"date":"2012-06-22T11:53:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T15:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=11450"},"modified":"2012-07-03T17:25:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T21:25:03","slug":"should-america-be-a-christian-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2012\/06\/should-america-be-a-christian-nation","title":{"rendered":"Should America be a Christian nation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago on June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayer from U.S. public schools on the principle that America has no state religion \u2013 and is not officially a Christian nation. <\/em><\/p>\n

It set the stage for today\u2019s environment in which any high schooler who utters a prayer at graduation or any cross or nativity scene on public property is subjected to prolonged court challenges.<\/p>\n

On June 20, New York City kindergarten students were blocked from performing the song “God Bless the USA” at their graduation ceremony after principal Greta Hawkins said the song could end up “offending\u201d listeners and result in litigation. The song’s author, country music artist Lee Greenwood, said he was offended by Hawkins’ decision, “I wrote ‘God Bless the USA’ about the love I have for this country and the struggle we have gone through to remain free,” Greenwood said. “Personally, denying the children to sing ‘God Bless the USA’ offends me as a Christian.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kindergartners singing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMy song is about hope, faith, spirit and pride. How could that be wrong on any level?”<\/p>\n

But Principal Hawkins\u2019 fear is justified. The \u201cEstablishment Clause\u201d of the Constitution\u2019s First Amendment is \u201cin shambles,\u201d\u00a0thanks to\u00a0the U.S. Supreme Court,<\/a> which \u201cshould be deeply troubled by what its Establishment Clause jurisprudence has wrought,\u201d wrote Justice Thomas in a recent dissent, \u201clike some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad after being repeatedly killed and buried \u2026frightening the little children and school attorneys \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But does any government have any business dabbling in religion or morality questions?<\/p>\n

A few days ago, British Dr. Patrick Pullicino, a neurologist at East Kent Hospitals and a professor of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Kent, startled the Royal Society of Medicine in London by disclosing that annually 130,000 elderly Britons receiving government health care are routinely hurried along on their way to the grave by bureaucrats of the United Kingdom\u2019s National Health Service.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dr. Patrick Pullicino<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe chilling news came to light,\u201d reported Charlotte Meredith of the Daily Express<\/em><\/a>, after Pullicino revealed NHS doctors are using the controversial \u201cLiverpool Care Pathway\u201d \u2013 an official policy under which \u201cdoctors can withdraw treatment, food and water while patients are heavily sedated in an attempt to make their final days pass quickly and comfortably \u2013 normally resulting in a patient\u2019s death within 33 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds,\u201d reported Steve Doughty for the Daily Mail newspaper.<\/a><\/p>\n

A May 2011 Daily Mail <\/em>story<\/a> exposed elderly British patients being starved and dehydrated to death as government-paid medical staff routinely ignored patients\u2019 calls for help and forgot to check that they had had enough to eat and drink. A commission found that hip replacements and cataract surgery were being put on a \u201cnon-urgent\u201d list in an attempt to help save the state health care program $20 billion.<\/p>\n

In the British press, Dr. Pullicino\u2019s charges eclipsed another doctor\u2019s story \u2013 British Dr. Richard Scott who lost his appeal against the UK\u2019s General Medical Council, which reprimanded him for sharing his Christian faith with a patient. The council ruled that Dr. Scott had Continued on page 2<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifty years ago on June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayer from U.S. public schools on the principle that America has no state religion \u2013 and is not officially a Christian nation. It set the stage for today\u2019s environment in which any high schooler who utters a prayer at graduation or any cross…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1120,74],"tags":[2070,2071,2072],"class_list":["post-11450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian","category-persecuted-christians","category-religious-freedom","tag-americas-christian-heritage","tag-religious-persecution","tag-the-first-amendment"],"yoast_head":"\nShould America be a Christian nation?<\/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\/news\/2012\/06\/should-america-be-a-christian-nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should America be a Christian nation?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fifty years ago on June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayer from U.S. public schools on the principle that America has no state religion \u2013 and is not officially a Christian nation. 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