Articles | Less
Editorial: Editorial: Cedar Key News Annual Meeting March 29 March 8th, 2008
Editorial: Let School Board Know What Should Be Taught February 15th, 2008
Editorial: What Is a Fair Tax? February 4th, 2008
Editorial: Inconsistent Appraisals Harm Taxpayers December 17th, 2007
Editorial: Energy Crisis? November 30th, 2007
Editorial: Florida Water War Heat Up October 16th, 2007
Editorial: Nobel Prizes in Medicine October 5th, 2007
Editorial: Editorial: Same Rules for Everyone September 22nd, 2007
Editorial: Demand Action on Bridge Repair August 8th, 2007
Editorial: Local Response Needed to Stem Clam Poaching July 24th, 2007
Editorial: Money, Money, Money...Votes July 9th, 2007
Editorial: We Celebrate Independence and Clams June 26th, 2007
Editorial: Are You Ready for Hurricane Season? June 12th, 2007
Editorial: The Sources of Progress in Medicine May 30th, 2007
Editorial: A New Era of Politics and Religion May 17th, 2007
More
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
|