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.

Pretty simple. You have the freedom to believe what you want to believe, and government cannot force any religion down anyone’s throat. And yet, that is exactly what many GOP presidential candidates want to do: create a Christian Theocracy that allows only Christianity and replace our civil law and courts with “God’s law.”

I highly recommend your checking out this article on Slate. It’s positively chilling for fans of the Constitution.

Is the United States sliding toward theocracy? That’s what Republican presidential candidates have told us for more than a year. Radical Islam, they’ve argued, is on the verge of taking over our country through Sharia law. But this weekend, at an Iowa forum sparsely covered by the press, the candidates made clear that they don’t mind theocracy—in fact, they’d like to impose it—as long as it’s Christian.

The post Theocracy in America first appeared on What He Said: The Words of Jesus Christ.

1. Herman Cain, presidential candidate on the Republican side, believes that towns and communities should have the right to prevent the construction of mosques in their neighborhood. Very interesting. Would a Buddhist church be okay? How about an ashram? Or a center for white supremacists?

2. I’m a big believer in keeping your religion/faith to yourself, but Greg Stier wrote a piece in the Christian Post regarding “Bible believers are obsessed with converting people from their belief systems to Christianity. If they’re not they should be. Here are 3 reasons why:” And he lists them:

• Jesus told us to. Stier uses Luke 24:47-49 as his reference, but I think there are clearer examples. Heck, Jesus is always out telling people to spread the word.
• It’s good news. “Proseltyizing gives us a pedicure in a way we could never imagine because our feet are carrying good news to everyone we meet.”
• It saves people from hell.

Personally, if I were starting a religion, I would include lots of orders to proseltyze in my manual and mandatory 2-year missions and any other such built-ins I could think of that would help grow and perpetuate my religion.

3. 74% of Americans believe in heaven and 60% believe in hell. Who goes where? Kim Lawton has a nice summary piece.

The post Tuesday Smorgasbord first appeared on What He Said: The Words of Jesus Christ.