DE-SEN

Christine O'Donnell: Where In The Constitution Is The Separation Of Church And State? (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | October 19, 2010, 10:58AM

Delaware Senate candidates Chris Coons (D) and Christine O'Donnell (R)

In a debate with Democrat Chris Coons this morning, Delaware's Republican nominee for Senate, Christine O'Donnell, suggested the way she reads the Constitution, there's no ban on the government establishing or influencing organized religion.

"Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?" O'Donnell said, according to the AP.

The question came as part of a discussion over science education in public schools. O'Donnell "criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine." She also seemed unclear about what's in the Constitution itself.

"You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?" she asked, when Coons brought up the fact that the very First Amendment to the Constitution "bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion."

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Influential Mosque Opponent Promotes Religious Freedom Abroad For U.S. Government

Brian Beutler | August 18, 2010, 5:07PM

A protest against the 'Ground Zero Mosque' and Dr. Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, inset.

As president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Dr. Richard Land is an influential opponent of the Cordoba House project in New York. But when he's not speaking on behalf of one of the most powerful religious bodies in the country, Land has a second -- some would say ironic -- ecumenical role: member of the federally created United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

In his role as a commissioner, Land's job is to press for a U.S. foreign policy that advances religious freedoms around the world. Reached by phone today, Land maintained that there is no contradiction between his service on the Commission and his efforts to see the Cordoba House Islamic cultural center project moved farther north in Manhattan.

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