Christianomics: A blog on economics, politics, and law

We have the first amendment because the founders didn’t want an American clone of the Church of England, which was famously established because Henry VIII wanted a divorce and the pope said “No”.(1). “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion [promoting one religion over another], 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.” Interestingly the phrase “separation of church and state” is not in the First amendment nor is it in the constitution. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter that the legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, “thus building a wall of separation between Church & State”.(2) With this context it is clear the First Amendment was intended to limit government intrusion into religion, not vice versa. Over the years, ho...

Google and Apple are removing the Parler app for not censoring posts which incite violence. As a Christian conservative/libertarian this puts me in a tough spot. I don't like that these companies are doing this, but at the same time I'm happy that the major credit card companies and PayPal have cut off payments to PornHub(1). I also think it's okay for bakers to refuse to bake cakes for any reason, religious, bigoted, or otherwise(2). So to stay true to my principles I have to agree these companies are within their rights to do this. Now I will add a big caveat that the CEO of Parler has made some compelling statements regarding double standards(3). This could become a very strong legal case pertaining to any platform that would go a long way to clarifying the role of Section 230 and the bounds of censorship by private companies. But for now, we will have to wait and see how things play out. (Update: Parler has announced a lawsuit against Amazon (3.1)) Freedom of speech, h...

Source: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/sep/10/arlen-parsa/evidence-shows-most-47-men-famous-declaration-inde/ "This is one of the most famous paintings in American history: Declaration of Independence," Arlen Parsa wrote above an image of the 1818 oil by John Trumbull. "I decided to put red dots on all the men who held slaves. Next time someone puts them on a pedestal and says we can't question their judgement on guns or whatever, show them this image."(1) In addressing this work of art, we need to establish two basic facts: 1. The Declaration of Independence is a different document from the Constitution 2. These two unique and separate documents were signed by unique and different people (except in 6 cases: George Clymer, George Read, Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin). 3. The Declaration does not address slavery or gun rights. 4. The Constitution does. So Arlen Parsa is complaining about the Constitution while pointing ...