This thread points the necessity of preserving the secular aspect of the Constitution...the separation of church and state. We see the need for this now when the Taliban represents the religious fervor in the extreme.

Religion must be separated from the religious experience as Jung has pointed out. We have an inalienable right to a religious experience but no right to cram our religious beliefs down another's throat. This is what wars are made of and the truth that the Taliban forces us to see.

Fortunately we are not just a Christian, or a Jewish, or a Hindu or Muslim nation....regardless of what some would have us believe. Those who believe otherwise are as the Taliban, theocrats who alienate all others who do not believe their way.

Yet we are entitled to our worship as Americans as long as we keep separate our government from any theocracy. Thomas Jefferson recognized this. That's why he was a Unitarian. They believe in separation of church and state.

The Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, extremist Shi'ites, Sunnis or those who advocate violence in the name of God as well as our own theocrats are antithetical to every American ideal.

This is a conflict over religion. The basis of almost every war. In Germany, Nazism was a kind of religion. It employed violence directed at a different religious group. The Irish "troubles" are about religion. Communisim as practiced under Stalin assumed a guise of religion and employed violence toward religous groups as they do today in China.

Mr. Bush should be very careful about trying to theocratize the government by too many "Christian" references.

In short, God bless the separation of church and state. Amen.

Frank