Michael Dunne: Keep church, state separate

Thank goodness for Senate leader Phil Berger and his colleagues in the North Carolina state legislature, and too bad they weren’t around in the mid-1960s when Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) got into so much legal and boxing trouble when he refused to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War because of the teachings of his religion. He was stripped of his boxing license and title and convicted of evading the draft by a federal grand jury.

This was eventually reversed by the Supreme Court, but if Berger had been around, Ali could have avoided all of this nonsense because religious beliefs trump federal and state laws any day.

Now, if only I could find a religion that eschews the payment of state and federal taxes.

There was a reason the Founding Fathers separated church and state.

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Michael Dunne: Keep church, state separate."