Re: USA Timeline (was: RE: I'm Back)

Laserlight wrote:
> 
> >2)  Why on earth would representatives of a government dedicated to
the
> >separation of church and state seek the blessings of the Pope?
> 
> The US Government was not actually intended to separate church and
state.
> That's a phrase lifted out of context from the Federalist Papers and
bandied
> about by people who have an anti-religion agenda to push.  If the
American
> separatists are hearkening back to the Founding Fathers, they might
> reasonably ask the blessings of the Church on their endeavor--although
I
> wouldn't expect them to pay all that much attention to the Vatican.

I am intimately familiar with the Church/State debate, and while I will
grant you that the original intent was not to completely eliminate
religion from government, there was certainly an intent to prevent
anything that smacked of establishing a state church.  The way the
contacts with the Vatican (both pre and post exodus) are presented sound
way too close for comfort.  And while you can postulate almost anything
you like happening during the American exile (the bizarre development of
Kerensky's forces in the BattleTech universe, for instance), I have
trouble seeing the Federales doing it before they even left.