Separation of church and state?

No; not here in Jesusland.

On Wednesday, lawmakers in Washington turned the capitol into a house of prayer.  Speakers included Newt Gingrich, Christian author Eric Metaxas, and one of our favorite crazy ladies, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota).

Here’s some of what theocrat/congresswoman Bachmann had to say:

“It’s no secret that our nation may very well be experiencing the hand of judgment.  It’s no secret that we all are concerned that our nation may be in a time of decline.  If that is in fact so, what is the answer?

“The answer is what we are doing here today: humbling ourselves before an almighty God, crying out to an almighty God, saying not of ourselves but you, would you save us oh God? We repent of our sins, we turn away from them, we seek you, we seek your ways. That’s something that we’re doing today, that we did on the National Day of Prayer, it’s something that we have chosen to do as well on another landmark day later this year on September 11.

“Our nation has seen judgment not once but twice on September 11. That’s why we’re going to have “9/11 Pray” on that day.  Is there anything better that we can do on that day rather than to humble ourselves and to pray to an almighty God?”

Is there anything better we could do on that day?  Of course there is.  As Madalyn Murray O’Hair famously said:

“An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated.”

Whether you, as an individual, are a theist or an atheist, separation of church and state means, among other things, that we don’t make legislative decisions based on a belief in a particular deity—Christian or otherwise.  Our legislators should earn their tax payer funded salaries getting deeds done, not saying prayers.