Oh, THAT constitution!

"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."

There you are! That is what the first amendment to the Constitution says: Congress may not establish a state religion, nor, on the other hand, prohibit people from being religious, if they choose to.

Christine "I'm not a witch!" O'Donnell thought her Democratic opponent in Delaware had gone too far. Chris Coons had said that teaching creationism (God made it all, piece by piece, as it is) would violate the first amendment because the government was not supposed to promote any particular religious group. Coons said that private and parochial schools could teach it if they wanted to, but the government couldn't. "Religious doctrine," he said, "does not belong in our public schools."

Really!, Ms. O'Donnell wondered. "Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell asked him.

"You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp," Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said.

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