Articles | Less
Editorial: What Have We Learned? September 3rd, 2005
Editorial: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace August 17th, 2005
Editorial: What Is a Consultant to Do? July 5th, 2005
Editorial: Six Land Use Petitions in Play June 25th, 2005
Editorial: Poaching & Plagiarism June 13th, 2005
Editorial: Upward and Onward in 2005 May 24th, 2005
Editorial: Farewell Maureen May 17th, 2005
Editorial: Speaking About Speak Out May 10th, 2005
Editorial: Informed Voters Wanted March 26th, 2005
Editorial: Health Needs Survey Well Received February 12th, 2005
Editorial: Fire Protection, Fire Insurance and Tax Justice January 25th, 2005
Editorial: Cedar Key Health Service Survey January 14th, 2005
Editorial: New Year`s Resolution December 31st, 2004
Editorial: Do We Need Better Healthcare in Cedar Key? December 16th, 2004
Editorial: Help Defend Us October 29th, 2004
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The Purpose of Government? | The Purpose of Government?Editorial A brewer in Utah markets a hearty brew called Polygamy Porter. The sales pitch says, "Take a six pack home to your wives." Recent television documentaries and a Salt Lake City newspaper have made it clear that in some corners of Utah there are more wives than husbands. So what does polygamy have to do with the functions of a government? Most people agree that we should have no more government than enough to protect citizens from felons, fires, diseases, bad drivers, drunken airline pilots, et cetera. Good roads, clean rivers and care for the needy also have become things that most tax payers expect for their money. Furthermore, many people give lip service, if not support, for separation of Church and State. Back to polygamy. Polygamy was "revealed" to be morally wrong to church leaders in Utah. It was no coincidence that it became a condition for Utah to become a state. Utah "joined the union" by limiting marital unions. This would seem to be an extreme case of mixing Church and State. Some men and women approve of and apparently enjoy polygamy. Is it the government's business to decide who joins who in holy matrimony? The Cedar Key News editorial board and a lot of other people are confused by our government being involved in who practices polygamy. Cedar Key News neither endorses nor condemns polygamy. We DO support separation of Church and State, both keeping government out of religious practices and keeping religious beliefs out of government policy. Whether it is the Taliban, Puritans or other religious fanatics running the government, individual rights and beliefs get trampled. When free thinkers such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine cooperated with the more conventional and Christian revolutionaries to write our Constitution, they must have believed that separation of Church and State could and should work, in both directions. |
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