Letter to the Editor

                                           

The core of Amendment 8 is this question:  Should taxpayer money (from the Florida State treasury)  be given to religious institutions without restrictions? Answering no to that question means you should vote no on Amendment 8.

A good link to the complete wording of the amendment:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Florida_Religious_Freedom,_Amendment_8_(2012)

Another good link to ALL the amendments that will be on our Florida ballot in November: http://thefloridavoter.org

My position is that we should vote NO on amendment 8.

 

Removing the line (that amendment 8 wants to remove from the Florida Constitution) would eliminate the following restrictions:

1. Taxpayer money cannot be used to proselytize a particular religion

2. Taxpayer money must be used for services offered to the entire community — not for services offered exclusively to those of a particular faith

I strongly believe that those restrictions are necessary. There is a lot of available research demonstrating that a pluralistic society is good. Allowing various religious and non-religious views to be discussed in the open without fear of retaliation is good. Any legislation that attempts to reduce that plurality should be feared.  From the reading that I have done, I strongly believe that the wall separating the government from any particular religion is what the framers of the Constitution of our grand country had in mind when drafting the establishment clause of the First Amendment.

Churches, mosques, and synagogues should be funded by donations from the parishioners. I see no reason (especially no fiscally sound reason) to fund religions of the politicians with tax dollars from our state treasury.

For those two reasons (restrictions are needed and parishioners should fund their own religion) my position is that we should all vote NO on Amendment 8.

Susan Ert-ker