Last week I wrote about school vouchers, and how they effectively force non-religious people to support a religious purpose. After completing that article, I got to thinking about a lot of the other ways that we non-religious people are unwittingly forced to do the same thing.

This list is by no means comprehensive, just a few items that occurred to me off the top of my head. But I'll bet that most Americans aren't aware of all of these.

In addition to your tax dollars paying (where applicable) for school vouchers that may be used to send other peoples' kids to religious schools, your money is also used to:

Support churches. Churches are tax-exempt. But the income "lost" from these taxes is "gained" by the government in the form of increased taxes for the rest of us. In some areas, this goes even further, with certain services being provided "free" for churches, such as snow and garbage removal.

Pay for chaplains in prisons and in the military. Yes, every religious figurehead in the armed forces and in our penitentiaries makes his wages from your pocket.

Support organizations that discriminate against non-believers and homosexuals. The Boy Scouts of America springs to mind. Yes, they receive federal funding, yet are legally allowed to adhere to discriminatory practices that your employer isn't.

Pay for religious studies. Tax dollars go toward expensive studies of such things as the effects of prayer in the medical field. Certainly there are equally absurd government funded studies that have no religious basis, but the fact that studies like this one exist is reprehensible.

Are you getting the idea that government just doesn't want to support the first amendment? Golly, what could have given you that idea? Perhaps the institution of such things as the National Day of Prayer, or National Bible Week? Maybe.

And what about things we all use? Like our money. "In God We Trust" has been on and off our coinage since 1863, but has been permanent on our paper currency since 1957. And the government somehow says that it isn't a religious phrase!

Nor do they recognize the Ten Commandments as being a predominantly religious document (despite the first four having absolutely nothing secular about them), and allow them to be displayed in public courthouses and other buildings as an example of legal doctrine. Yeah, right.

The post office isn't open on Sunday. Why? Because of a court decision in 1912, brought on by religious factions who erroneously put forth that our "Christian" nation demands that the Sabbath be observed.

And let's not forget all our kids in government schools being fed the Pledge of Allegiance. Or rather, the revised version, when "under God" was added in 1954.

As you can see, the religionists have been hard at work undermining our first amendment rights for a long, long time. But that doesn't mean they can't be stopped. If more of us have the temerity to confront these and other unconstitutional acts, maybe we can turn this country into really being a democracy.

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