$1,000 Reward Offered By Christine O’donnell’s 2008 Campaign Manager

Press Release

$1,000 REWARD OFFERED BY

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL’S 2008 CAMPAIGN MANAGER

FOR ANYONE WHO CAN FIND THE PHRASE

“SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE”

In the US Constitution

Contact :  Jonathon Moseley

(703) 656-1230

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA (October 21, 2010) — $1,000 is being offered — including as a donation to CHRIS COONS‘ U.S. Senate Campaign in Delaware — for any one who can find the exact phrase “Separation of Church and State” anywhere in the United States Constitution, by Virginia attorney Jonathon Moseley.   Moseley was the 2008 primary campaign manager for national Cinderella candidate CHRISTINE O’DONNELL.

http://www.SupportChristine.com/reward.html

In a US Senate debate on October 19, 2010, in Wilmington, Delaware, non-lawyer Christine O’Donnell bravely entered Widener Law School to debate lawyer Chris Coons on the Constitution before a crowd of law students and law professors.

O’Donnell called Coons on the carpet, correctly exposing Coons’ mis-statements about the First Amendment.  Coons claimed that the phrase “separation of church and state” is found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  It is not.   O’Donnell took Coons to school inside the law school.

When challenged by O’Donnell, Coons then changed his “story” several times, offering several different versions of the First Amendment.

In the end, Coons offered yet another mangled mis-statement of the First Amendment, to which O’Donnell challenged laughingly “That’s in the First Amendment?”  NONE of Coons’ changing versions were an accurate statement of the First Amendment.   The final statement Coons offered is not in the First Amendment, to which O’Donnell asked “That’s in the First Amendment?”

Moseley explained:  “Despite the Left’s attempt to amend the US Constitution by simply repeating “The Big Lie” over and over again, the phrase ”separation of church and state” cannot be found in the United States Constitution.  In fact, the words “church” and “separation” also are not found individually anywhere in the U.S. Constitution.”

Moseley explained: “Chris Coons clearly believes in evolution… of the U.S. Constitution. Constitutional evolutionists rely on a private letter from Thomas Jefferson to invent a “separation of church and state.” Trouble is… Jefferson was not in the Constitutional Convention that wrote the U.S. Constitution. Jefferson was in Paris at the time. Jefferson was also not a member of the first U.S. Congress that wrote the Bill of Rights, either. (That first Congress also used U.S. Treasury funds to import 20,000 Christian Bibles.)”

Coons and the leftist media quickly back-tracked and tried to cover for Coon’s gaffe, by changing the subject.   The exchange was mis-reported by portraying the First Amendment as, in substance, including the functional equivalent of “separation of church and state.”

However, this also is false.  The First Amendment guarantees “THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF (of religion).”    A wall of separation would violate the 2nd part of the clause, violating THE FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION.

“Any rule that makes religion or religious people unwelcome in any place or any aspect of American life is a violation of the ‘FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION’ guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment,” Moseley explained.

“Similarly, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution prohibits any religious test for any person to serve in government or have any position of public trust under the U.S. Constitution,” Moseley continued.  “This swings both ways.  The Constitution does not permit a test of NON-religion as a condition of serving in government or acting in government.   A test that one cannot be religious to act or serve in government violates Article VI of the U.S. Constitution.”

As a result, Christine O’Donnell’s argument is correct that public schools may inform and teach students about a variety of topics.   Public schools may not lead students in religious ceremonies, sacraments, or observances or advocate for a particular religion or denomination.  However, public schools may, and should, inform students of the world around them including the role of religion in history and the details of religions in the surrounding culture, particularly major religions.

Even the U.S. Supreme Court itself has explained in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971): “Our prior holdings do not call for total separation between church and state; total separation is not possible in an absolute sense. Some relationship between government and religious organizations is inevitable. Zorach v. Clauson, 343 U. S. 306, 343 U. S. 312 (1952); Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U. S. 398, 374 U. S. 422 (1963) (HARLAN, J., dissenting). … Judicial caveats against entanglement must recognize that the line of separation, far from being a “wall,” is a blurred, indistinct, and variable barrier depending on all the circumstances of a particular relationship.”

However, Moseley commented: “The U.S. Supreme Court has simply got it wrong on the First Amendment. Many Supreme Court justices in dissenting opinions have expressed great unhappiness with and outright opposition to the Supreme Court’s unguided meanderings on the First Amendment. Christine O’Donnell is correct and joins the ranks of many learned Supreme Court justices in demanding that our country return to the U.S. Constitution as it is actually written. The law clerks over in the U.S. Supreme Court should stop reading people’s letters and re-read the U.S. Constitution itself. We should also learn from our mistakes and stop allowing metaphors to tangle up our thinking with irrelevant images, no matter how cute the metaphor may sound. Metaphors may be fun but they do more to confuse and distract than to enlighten.”

Public schools have taught comparative religion classes for many decades, and many public schools are actively teaching students about Islam.  See, for example:  http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52335

“Apparently, it is only Christianity that is perceived to be unwelcome in schools,” Moseley commented.

In 2008, O’Donnell was the official Republican nominee for the US Senate running against Joe Biden.  Jonathon Moseley, a long-time friend, ran O’Donnell’s party convention primary campaign.

In 2010, O’Donnell defeated long-time Congressman Mike Castle for the Republican nomination running again for Joe Biden’s old Senate seat.

Jonathon Moseley is currently an attorney practicing in Northern Virginia.

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