American History and The Seperation of Church and State Essay

American History and The Seperation of Church and State - Essay Example The separation of church and state is an issue that should not continue to be debated as this matter was settled nearly 300 years ago in this country and culture. However, subjects such as whether evolution should be taught in school continue to plague the American dialogue and, opposed to the intentions of the Founders, the political arena as well. In founding the new nation, Thomas Jefferson, working on a bill for his own home state of Virginia, drafted the first document to expressly address the connection between church and state based on the ideas of Locke. â€Å"Taking this idea from Locke, Jefferson proposed that Virginia end all tax support of religion and recognize the natural right of all persons to believe as they wish.† (â€Å"Separating Church and State† 1997) The bill didn’t pass right away, but a reintroduction of it by James Madison while Jefferson was serving as ambassador to France saw acceptance and the first time in history that a government had acted to legally separate church and state. It was three years later, in 1789, when Madison proposed several amendments to the new Constitution that would further define the federal government’s restrictions as far as it pertained to religious beliefs. The very first of these amendments begins with â€Å"Congress shall make no law respect ing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (â€Å"The Constitution†) Despite this, by the time Jefferson himself became president in 1801, the separation of church and state remained an issue of paperwork in many of the states, where laws regarding who could vote (only Christians in good standing), establishing religious holidays and holy days and enforcing taxes to support the Christian church were still enforced. When Jefferson was criticized for refusing to proclaim a national day of prayer, he responded

Social Rights Are Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Social Rights Are Human Rights - Essay Example Human rights are defined as the rights that a human has as a result of being a human. This follows that every human being has an inherent authority over human rights. Human rights cannot be divided whether they are civil or political; for example the right to live, no discrimination before the law and freedom of speech and expression. Similarly, economic, social and cultural rights cannot be divided either. However these rights are interrelated and dependent on each other. This follows that progress in one right has an influence on the other and withdrawal of one impact the other (United Nations Human Rights, 2011). Whelan and Donnelly (2007) argue that Western countries have advocated economic and social rights strongly and consistently over the period of time, leading to the post-World War era as we know now. However most analysts are of the perspective that political and civil rights have been given preponderance over social rights. McNally (2006) observes that the global corporat e agenda is a representation of the trend towards commodification that has led to the promotion of capitalism since its advent, highlighting the greater importance being given to political rights. Human rights encompass a range of freedoms and rights, of which economic, social and cultural rights form a part of. The human rights definition that follows does imply the notion of protecting social rights and laws and regulations are meant to safeguard the basic and vital â€Å"needs of the human person and his/her dignity in times of peace and war† (Kalin, Muller & Wyttenbach, 2004). However human rights do not grant equal importance to the rights that they compromise of. It is argued that social rights are not given the same status by human rights as it gives to civil and political rights. According to Vierdag (1978), civil and political rights have always been considered as absolute and immediate compared to economic, social and cultural rights, which are considered programmat ic and to be recognized over the period of time. This will form the core of the argument in this paper and will focus on the status of social, civil and political rights in the context of human rights. When taking human rights as a collective concept, it can be appreciated that human rights have developed and evolved throughout the course of history. This has led to the division of human rights into three generations. Kalin, Muller and Wyttenbach (2004) observe that the pattern and process of the evolution of human rights is manifested in their structure. The Human rights that are represented and divested in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be classified into several generations; this classification is based on the historical origin of each generation. Commonly human rights are divided into three main generations. The first generation consists of civil and political rights and the second generation refers to economic, social and cultural rights. The third generation com promises of collective rights or solidarity rights. The division of human rights into further generations creates a difference in the level of importance attached to each. This paper will delve into the details of the first two generations. Civil and political