Religion & The State

     One of Alabama's Muslim State Legislators says he and his fellow Muslim lawmakers "work hard to do what we feel Allah wants us to do."

    Actually, there are no Muslim lawmakers in Alabama.    
    There was just one, and he was defeated in the last primary. 

    But Rep.Mickey Hammonds (R-Decatur), the House Majority Leader, said something similar in an interview last week: "Christian lawmakers... work hard to do that we feel God wants us to do"* 

     The Alabama Constitution's prohibition on mixing church and state is much more specific than what Thomas Jefferson called the U.S. Constitution's "wall of separation". Here's what Alabamians wrote in 1901:

SECTION 3

Religious freedom.

That no religion shall be established by law; that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect, society, denomination, or mode of worship; that no one shall be compelled by law to attend any place of worship; nor to pay any tithes, taxes, or other rate for building or repairing any place of worship, or for maintaining any minister or ministry; that no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under this state; and that the civil rights, privileges, and capacities of any citizen shall not be in any manner affected by his religious principles.

     Whichever faith tradition you celebrate or commemorate this season, this Easter Sunday, may it bring you to a better place, help you become a better person, and fulfill your personal religious yearnings!

(*his comment was in regard to the ministers' group running TV ads against the Immigration Bill he sponsored.)


[PLUS: a Decatur Daily columnist this Easter Sunday asks if the Immigration Law approved by Alabama's Christian Majority Legislature follows Christ's teachings.]