Freedom of Religion, Insurances and a Middle East Quiz

                                        

Middle East Quiz

Recently, Donald Trump stumbled over some “gotcha” type questions posed by a reporter.  So that you can do better than the Donald in a political discussion, see if you can match the following groups with their general definition.  And if you can’t, the answers are at the end of this blog posting.

JL

 

1. Kurds forces
2. Quds forces
3. Hamas
4. Hezbollah

1. Iranian Revolutionary Guard Special Forces reporting directly to the Ayatollah.
2. Anti-Israel Iranian-supported terrorist group operating in and from Lebanon.
3. Anti-Israel Palestinian terrorist group operating in and from Gaza.
4. Army of group seeking to set up independent state in northern Iraq.    
   

This General commands one of these groups


                                               

Comprende?

During my many years in the life and health insurance industry in New York, I used the word “insurance” on a daily basis.  Only when we retired to Florida did I come across the word “insurances.”  Typically, a health care provider’s advertisements or a sign in their office would read “We accept many insurances.”  This has always sounded very peculiar to my northern senses which would prefer reading or hearing something in the singular, like “We accept insurance from many companies.”
           

                                    

I suppose this “plural” use of the word “insurance” here is the result of the influence of there being many Spanish-speaking people in Florida because the Spanish word for insurance is “seguros,” a plural word. (Used in the singular in Spanish, “seguro” translates as “security.”)  In English, however, I believe that the plural of “insurance” is still “insurance,” leaving “insurances” to those English-speaking Floridians who know no better, including those with MD degrees.  Comprende?

Jack Lippman


                                                       

Religion and the First Amendment
"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."

The first sixteen words of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, reproduced above, are the basis for religious freedom in the United States.  The Amendment, however, specifically deals with Congress and not with the Executive or Judicial branches of government.  Technically, there is no First Amendment protection in regard to what these other two branches can do.  Any such protection from actions of these two other branches exists in the fine balance between the three branches of our government and of course, the electoral process.  We can elect a new Executive Branch every four years, the Congress can pass whatever laws it chooses to, subject to possible review by the Supreme Court or veto by the President, and the make-up of the Supreme Court can be changed over the years, as the Constitution intended in a slow, conservative manner.

Some people feel that decisions made by the Supreme Court, for example, amount to prohibiting the free exercise of religion, and such decisions can thereby result in “judicial” legislation which becomes the law of the land, without any law being passed. Congress has not passed laws regarding abortion rights nor same sex marriage, but Supreme Court decisions have made them legal, by making decisions in Court cases dealing with them, related to the interpretation of other State or Federal laws.  It is the job of the Court to interpret laws!

It is really a stretch to equate such “judicial” legislation with the Amendment’s prohibition of the free exercise of religion by Congress.  The county clerk in Kentucky who felt that issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples did indeed impinge upon her religious beliefs is the most recent example of this.  Businesses whose owners feel complying with the Affordable Care Act’s provisions regarding birth control also take this position, as do hospitals run by religious organizations.

County Clerk Kim Davis after six days in jail for putting her religious beliefs over her governmental duties, which she had taken an oath to uphold.

Let’s get it straight.  Although the United States of America’s founding comes out of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and although the vast majority of Americans are Christian, this is not a Christian country, nor can it ever be any other kind of “religion-based” country.  That is what the First Amendment’s first sixteen words are all about.   

I believe that the Founding Fathers limited the First Amendment's restrictions to the Congress because that was the most "democratic" of the three branches of our Government and the one they felt was most likely to produce potential threats to the freedoms protected by the First Amendment.   The courts and the President, they probably thought, were far less likely to succumb to the wishes of an unruly democracy. 

Any American is free to believe in anything they choose to believe in, but personal religious beliefs cannot be extended into any phase of Federal or State government operations, regardless of whether the rules for that governmental operation are based on legislation or judicial decision (or executive order for that matter). Anyone who believes otherwise, and that includes several aspirants for the G.O.P. Presidential nomination, should take a hard look at the Middle East where religion and government unfortunately are inseparable, and causing most of the problems in the world today.  I wonder how much "at home" Kim Davis would feel in Iran or Saudi Arabia where church and state are one!

JL

 

Answers to Middle East Quiz:  1-d, 2-a, 3-c, 4-b.  General Qasem Soleimani commands the Quds Forces. 


                               

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