The Impact of Information Technology on the UK Financial Sector :: Business and Management Studies

The Impact of Information Technology on the UK Financial Sector I have studied that in business, information technology can be used if effective in a strategic way in order to gain a competitive advantage and this can be seen in the UK financial services. In such an industry it can be said to be one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing sectors of the economy. Such a rate of change and growth has created a prolific environment for the innovation of information technology. The application of information technology has had a qualitative impact by changing the mode of operation in the financial sector, modifying the range of services provided and linking together geographically isolated financial hubs into a global financial community in order to trade 24 hours a day. For the past two decades organisations have noted that information technology is important for profitability on both the cost and revenue side. In the financial services sector costs arise from two broad areas of operation: those connected with the management of information, and those with the execution of transactions. Financial services have always been a labour-intensive industry. The rising cost of labour, relative to the cost of other factors of production, has imposed a burden of rising costs as a proportion of total revenue earned in such organisations as retail banks. The function of IT has been one very important way in which financial services firms have sought to contain their costs. For example, in commercial banking the application of successive generations of computerisation since the early 1960’s has dramatically reduced the size of ‘back-office’ staffing, while the growth of expensive paper-based systems for money transmission (cheque and credit clearing systems) has been curtailed by the development of paperless computerised payment systems such as BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing System) in the UK and the development of EFTPoS (Electronic Funds Transfer at Point of Sale) systems. The role of information technology has grown and changed continuously in the banking sector. The banking industry has used IT to enable increases in the volume of transactions as well as the development of new products; applications have ranged from back-office (check and accounts) processing, mortgage and loan application processing, and the electronic funds transfer to more strategic innovations such as automated teller machines and new kinds of securities. The use of IT has also had some important customer - supplier effects. For the customers of service providers, it has been used to improve the quality and variety of services in many industries, especially through its ability to amass, analyse, and control large quantities of specialised data. Such improvements include error reduction or increased precision, faster or more convenient service, and improved

Ella Baker Essay

Ella Baker embodies the theme of strength in the face of adversity in Joanne Grant’s novel Ella Baker: Freedom Bound. Ella Baker comes from a long line of strong women who taught her to stand up for what she felt was good and right. As Ella Baker encounters racial discord in the twentieth century, she draws up on the strength of her mother, her grandmother and her aunts. She also remembers the strength that was passed down from her grandfather and uncle. As a result of her great strength she is able to teach others about nurturing equality among all people. Ella Baker spent her adult years organizing people to fight for equality but this fight wasn’t always easy. Ella Baker was a black woman facing all the struggles that black people went through prior to and just after the Civil Rights Movement. She can be compared to Martin Luther King Jr. because of her tenaciousness and unwillingness to give up the fight. However, Baker faced gender discrimination as well which only added to her struggles but also encouraged her to continue to use the strength that her ancestors passed down to her. Ella Baker faced great resistance from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference headed by Martin Luther King Jr. because she was a woman and men didn’t care for taking advice from women. In this way, Ella Baker faced a fight for racial rights as well as gender rights. Ella Baker was responsible for organizing ordinary people to fight for equality. She is credited with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which mobilized ordinary people to join the Civil Right fight despite the challenges that they faced. Throughout her activist activities and numerous speeches, she urged ordinary people to find the strength to identify one thing that needed changing and work on it a little at a time. She emphasized to crowds that each person had something to give and these little bits could add up to huge changes. Ella Baker’s most important contribution to the world was her untiring dedication to the Civil Rights movement. Drawing upon the strength that her family members instilled in her gave her the power to continue the fight even when times were tough. She was one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement and Grant’s book details her great contributions. One important characteristic that gave Ella Baker so much of her strength was her ability to work towards equality without calling attention to herself. Baker didn’t focus on the work of individuals. Instead, she focused on the great things that could be accomplished when people worked together to make changes. As a result, Baker was often at odds with other (primarily male) civil rights activists because she was more focused on getting things done than reveling in the glory of accomplishment. Grant’s inclusion of primary and secondary sources only lends to the credibility of strength that she presents in her book. African American people have relied on songs and rhymes throughout history in order to gain strength during struggles. Grant’s inclusion of several of these short songs shows just how important strength was to Ella Baker and the many avenues she used to draw upon the strength of her family members. Grant’s use of personal remembrances of Ella Baker goes further to show her character and depth of her strength in her constant battle to gain equality for all people. If these accounts were not included in the book, the theme of strength wouldn’t be displayed as well as Grant was able to show. The use of primary and secondary sources give further evidence about the person that Ella Baker was and allow readers to gain a true picture of the kind of person that Ella Baker really was. Throughout the book, Ella Baker demonstrated her â€Å"belief in the ability of people to take control of their lives and lead themselves. † Joanne Grant realized the importance of telling the world about Ella Baker. Grant had first hand experience with the work of Ella Baker and the important contributions she made to the Civil Rights Movement. Grant witnessed Baker’s ability to set herself apart in order to build upon inner strength to find one’s path in life. Ella Baker was no stranger to resistance based on both her race and her gender and Grant knew that her story needed to be told so her name could be associated with the great work that was done throughout the Civil Rights Movement. The role of black women is underrepresented in non fiction and Grant took it upon herself to share her opinion of Ella Baker with readers. Ella Baker: Freedom Bound is a book that will open the eyes of readers learning about the Civil Rights. It will show the struggle that African Americans went through to gain equality but also the struggle that women went through. Grant paints a vivid picture of the strength that Ella Baker had despite constant challenges to keep her from reaching her goals. This book emphasizes that strength is necessary when one is fighting such an important battle. Ella Baker becomes the model of persistence through her dedication to equality and her willingness to keep fighting no matter what. She didn’t let men or white people keep her from working towards her vision of equal rights. This book is highly recommended to those who wish to gain a clear but different perspective on what it was like to be an activist during the Civil Rights Movement fighting for both racial and gender equality. Grant, Joanne. â€Å"Ella Baker: Freedom Bound. 1998. 17 Nov 2008 . Hamilton, Grace Towns & Robinson, Ruby Doris Smith. â€Å"Book excerpts: Three women’s voices from the annals of the civil rights struggle. † The New Crisis April: 1. Omatseye, Sam. â€Å"Ella Baker: A Civil Rights Angel. † Urban Spectrum. 2006. 17 Nov 2008 .

Portfolio Recovery Associates, An Account Executive

I am currently employed at Portfolio Recovery Associates as an Account Executive. I begin working for this company in 2008 as an account representative. Portfolio Recovery Associates strives to be a leader in the consumer debt collection industry. The company is distinguished by continuous innovation, strong customer focus, and cultures of integrity and compliance. The company was founded by four bankers in 1996. Since Portfolio was founded in 1996, it has grown to become one of the largest debt buying companies in the US. Portfolio Recovery Associates buys the debt then reach out to the debtors to try and help them resolve it. Debt collection is not easy job and can be very stressful. While trying to collect the debt we have consumer protection laws we have to abide by. When I started in 2008 there were always rules and regulations that had to be followed but over time things changed, one of the major challenges we had to face was in communication. In the past we were able to use our automated dialer system to call debtors land line, times have change majority of the people have dropped land lines and are now using cell phones. There are laws in place where you cannot call a cell phone using an automated system it has to be done manually. When the law changed it slowed us down dramatically, and it was hard adapting to that change. We went from speaking with 300 debtors a day to 40 which was very hard. We overcame that challenge. Portfolio Recovery Associate had a greatShow MoreRelatedDebt Collection Industry15330 Words   |  62 PagesWWW.IBISWORLD.COM DebtCollectionAgenciesintheUS October 2012 Paying off: Debtors had trouble paying out, but the recovery will return balance to the industry IBISWorld Industry Report 56144 Debt Collection Agencies in the US October2012 EbenJose 2 AboutthisIndustry 18 International Trade 36 KeyStatistics 2 Industry Definition 19 Business Locations 36 Industry Data 2 Main Activities 2 Similar Industries 21 CompetitiveLandscape Read MoreCredit Appraisal and Credit Risk Management13437 Words   |  54 Pagesterms. Credit risk, therefore, arises from the bank’s dealings with or lending to corporates, individuals, and other banks or financial institutions. Credit risk management needs to be a robust process that enables banks to proactively manage loan portfolios in order to minimize losses and earn an acceptable level of return for shareholders. 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The Effectiveness of Yield Management Systems Free Essay Example, 1000 words

It has been proved that yield management cannot perform well under specific conditions, as for example in the following cases: a) when a hotel serves a single market segment or b) when a hotel has less than 50 rooms, i.e. in a hotel that has low occupancy rates (Abdel-Kader 2011, p. 505). This means that yield management systems are primarily designed for supporting the operations of hotels that are already well established in the market. At the next level, Weber Chon (2002) note that today yield management has been highly developed compared to the past. The systems of yield management currently used in hotels worldwide can be so complex that they can be only managed by highly skilled staff (Weber Chon 2002, p. 198). For example, there are hotels where yield management is developed by individuals working exclusively on this subject (Weber Chon 2002, p. 198). This trend leads to the following assumption: in order to be able to respond to the needs of yield management, hotels oper ating in the modern market need to establish relevant training programs, ensuring that all employees involved in the particular activity are appropriately skilled. Bowie Buttle (2012) also highlight the high dependency of yield management on IT systems. We will write a custom essay sample on The Effectiveness of Yield Management Systems or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page Also, even if a yield management system has successfully operated for a particular period of time, its effectiveness in the long term cannot be secured.

Nature vs Nurture in Truman Capote’s Novel, In Cold Blood ...

Richard Mulcaster, a British instructor of English, once wrote, â€Å"Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.† Mulcaster recognizes that both genetic and environmental factors determine the type of a person one becomes. Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood gives the reader an opportunity to see prime examples of how nature and nurture influence one’s character. Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood introduces the reader to two men; Richard Eugene Hickock known as Dick throughout the novel, and Perry Edward Smith whose lives of crime are almost identical; although both Perry and Richard come from very humble backgrounds, their childhood particularly their family life, has very little in common. It is not until later in their†¦show more content†¦Soon after his second marriage Dick is arrested writing fraudulent checks. While in prison Dick meets Perry, and together the two men commit fraud and execute the horrific murders of four innocent people. Cultural Dictionary defines psychopath as â€Å"A mentally unbalanced person who is inclined toward antisocial and criminal behaviors.† Dick’s childhood is normal; his parents love him and provide for him as best they can; despite his parents love, Dick is a psychopath who lives a life of crime simply because it is in his nature. Dick’s psychopathic nature is evident throughout the novel. For example, when he needs money, he resorts to writing fraudulent checks. Dick shows absolutely no remorse after he tricks people into giving him money. Dick simply feels that it is acceptable to scam people in order to get what he wishes. In addition, Dick shows his psychopath tendencies after he and Perry rob and murder the Clutter family, Dick goes on with his life and never feels any remorse about the murders that he committed. Dick obviously doesn’t see anything wrong with murdering innocent people because he is a psychopath. Dick’s lack of consideration for other people’s life clearly shows that he truly only cares about himself. An additional example of Dick’s antisocial tendencies is when he is arrested for the being involved in the deaths of the Clutter family, and he decides that to blame Perry for the deaths of all four members of the Clutter family in order to avoidShow MoreRelatedThe Murder Of The Clutter Family1135 Words   |  5 Pagesfamily is Truman Capote’s best work. It started out as an article for The New Yorker, and evolved into the non-fiction novel; the first of its kind. Capote traveled to Kansas with friend Harper Lee to research the killings. In the course of six years bringing this narrative together, Capote began taking drugs and drinking heavily due to the dark nature of the book. Truman Capote tells the true story of a family murdered in In Cold Blood, through character analysis and symbolism to prove nature is a strongerRead MoreTruman Capote -In Cold Blood - Nature vs Nurture1274 Words à ‚  |  6 Pagesryan hegarty In Cold Blood. Question 2 â€Å"Nature vs Nurture† Truman Capote’s acclaimed â€Å"non-fiction† novel, In Cold Blood explores the concept as to whether killers are born or made, following the brutal murders of the Clutter family in rural Kansas. Capote develops Perry Smith’s horrid, unfortunate upbringing as a key narrative device which serves to illustrate the effect of childhood experiences on adult behaviour. Capote manipulates the reader’s idea of morality, controversially portraying PerryRead MoreIn Cold Blood: Nature vs Nurture Essay885 Words   |  4 PagesIn Truman Capote’s famous non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, there is evidence that supports the injustices of the trial: death penalty. 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Authors collect all of the information they can find about something they are interested in, and then write a book that is factually accurate, yet is written like a fictitious

Discuss the Narrative Method of Kurt Free Essays

string(57) " true to some extent at some of the points of the novel\." Discuss the Narrative method of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is a that in no way can be treated as one-dimensional one. It deals with the historical events like the bombing of Dresden, socio-cultural reality of America in the 1960s and the alternative world of Tralfamadorians. Although three different realms are combined, the novel does not present anything that could be perceived as unseen. We will write a custom essay sample on Discuss the Narrative Method of Kurt or any similar topic only for you Order Now Its exceptionality comes from a less explored perspective – the novel’s unique narrative structure. It seems obvious that the text could not have been interpreted with the use of traditional interpretational tools therefore Vonnegut introduced a new method of narration. The main focus of the analysis are several devices Vonnegut uses to create his narration. First of all the story has in fact two narrators not one. In this way the reader sees more clearly that he narration technique is in a way turned upside down. The narrator not necessarily loses his traditional role and still influences the way readers perceive the plot but a slight difference can be noticed. What is more, contrary to the potential assumptions of the reader, Slaughterhouse-Five not entirely breaks out with the convention of an anti-war book. The second issue that needs to be looked upon are the stylistic devices use by the author. Those are: the collage technique, the foreshadowing of some of the events and multitude of repetitions. These tools can be traced in every chapter of the novel. Moreover both of them connect different levels in the plot. The third aspect of the novel is Vonnegut’s attempt to explore the subconscious of the protagonist with the use of Tralfamadorian reality. It might be argued whether the author’s intention was to make the reader believe in alternative world or to present the main character as schizophrenic. By the matter of fact such question is legitimate as the topic of schizophrenia can be easily associated with Billy Pilgrim’s travels in time and space. From the first sentence in the novel the reader becomes aware that it is impossible to state whether the story is true or fictitious. â€Å"All this happened, more or less. † (p. 5) Throughout those words the reader is confronted with is the question of truth. In this way Vonnegut gives the reader a thrill and achieves the effect of reality. On the one hand the reader feels that the story is a fiction on the other however some parts of the story seem to be far too realistic to be artificial. Moreover Vonnegut calls his novel â€Å"a failure. † (p. 14) With this expression he again brings it into question the truthfulness of the reported facts. The question whether the novel tells a real story or is only a successful mystification is left to the reader to answer by himself. The story begins in chapter II. The author introduces the protagonist named Billy Pilgrim who describes his time travels. As the story unfolds the reader gets more details about the alternative world of the Tralfamadorians. The idea of time traveling as well as the utopian life on another planet is, by the matter of fact, just a renewed and transferred to the modern versions of topics introduced to literature centuries earlier by Thomas More or Jonathan Swift. There is however one aspect, which is worth a particular amount of attention – the way the story is presented. Taking into consideration the fact that it is Billy who describes what happened it is odd that every expression, Billy utters, is commented on with the words â€Å"he says†. (p. 20) At first sight this may not seem important but it points to the question of truth. Does Billy travel to remote areas, or does he only say so? Vonnegut asks this question every time he repeats those words. Another device used by the narrator is the foreshadowing of important events. As an example one may look at the following expression: â€Å"Billy sat down in the waiting room. He wasn’t a widower yet. † (p. 4) By foreshadowing some of the important events in the story the author breaks with the concept of time. He deliberately upsets the chronology in the novel. It is visible especially when Vonnegut places the first and the last sentences of the novel next to each other. That procedure forces the reader more focused while reading the novel, more careful in search of full understandi ng. What is more not only the concept of chronology but also tension is rejected in the novel. Vonnegut avoids tension by anticipating some of the events which are connected with a given character, for example: â€Å"His name was Howard W. Campbell, Jr. He would later hang himself while awaiting trial as a war criminal. † (p. 63); Next technique used by Vonnegut repetition of some phrases. The repetitions appear throughout the novel in different contexts. â€Å"I drive my wife away with a breath like mustard gas and roses. † (p. 6) This quotation occurs in the first chapter which describes the genesis of his novel. It is used again in chapter four, when Billy imagines that he can smell somebody’s breath and once again in the war episode when the protagonist describes the bodies: â€Å"rotted and liquefied† and the smell was â€Å"like roses and mustard gas. (p. 105) The smell is a kind of a sign which links the past with the present. The repetitions also join several episodes of the novel in order to make it less chaotic and incoherent and introduce a kind of structure. That in turn makes the novel more coherent and easier to follow. Apart from stylistic devices which Vonnegut, with all his mastery, uses to create the unique atmosphere Slaughterhouse Five turns out to be also a in-depth study of human psyche. The psychological aspect of the book is, however, deftly disguised with the use of alien society of the Tralfamadorians. The symbolic meaning of this alternative reality is in fact more than a symbol, as it becomes true to some extent at some of the points of the novel. You read "Discuss the Narrative Method of Kurt" in category "Essay examples" What is more Billy’s stay also make the reader raises more questions than it would be possible to provide answers to. Who or what are Tralfamadorians? Are they a symbol of an ideal society that is a far cry from the one known and used on Earth? A morality which just like many which preceded it should show us the way? Or maybe the planet exists only in Billy’s imagination and is nothing more than a plaint of a mind tormented by regret, a world existing in Billy’s reality only? It is difficult to state whether Vonnegut wants to impose the expression that Billy is schizophrenic or whether he tries to convince the reader that the Tralfamadorians really exist. It is essential to notice that Vonnegut does use the word schizophrenia from the very beginning of the novel. â€Å"This is a novel somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. † (p. ) Ambiguous as it is this statement still points out to the fact that the author’s intention was to mislead the reader a make him believe that schizophrenia might be the key issue, an element that should not be omitted. What is schizophrenia? According to R. D. Laing schizophrenia can be described as: â€Å"a special strategy that a person invents in order to li ve an unlivable situation. † This definition contrary to the strictly medical, that is traditional view seems to focus less on the fact that schizophrenia is a serious mental illness and more on the opportunities a split personality provides. According to this definition the fact that one’s personality can be torn apart because of the negative environment is a understandable defensive reaction. Might it be then a coincidence that the Tralfamadorians themselves might be treated as schizophrenic as they all the time neglect any negative implications in life and exclusively focus on the positive moments. Taking into consideration all the troubles Billy experiences during his lifetime, it seems obvious that Slaughterhouse Five tells a story of a man who can perceive his life as a failure. The protagonist has a negative childhood, marries a woman whom he pities but not love, so he is relieved when he loses her. He experiences much during the war, almost dies in a plane-crash and his children are hard to raise and difficult to love. For those reasons Billy’s life might be described as unlivable. Can one find a better reason to break the identity in half and try to find shelter in the depths of one’s mind? It seems to be a logical consequence for the protagonist. Mental illness perceived as a kind of barrier is also referred to several times in the novel. As an example Rosewater, one of the characters in the novel utters an assumption that life is too heavy a burden to be bearable for some eg. â€Å"Another time Billy heard Rosewater say to the psychiatrist, ‘I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren’t going to want to go on living. ‘† (p. 50) Also one of the descriptions given refers to one of the characteristic feature of schizophrenia – hallucinations – by stating: â€Å" Billy Pilgrim was having a delightful hallucination. He was wearing dry, warm, white sweatsocks, and he was skating on a ballroom floor. Thousands cheered. This wasn’t time-travel. It had never happened, never would happen. It was the craziness of a dying young man with his shoes full of snow. † (p. 26) Again the author uses those expressions not without a reason. With a few sentences he reveals the delicate inside of his character, makes him more approachable as if he felt obliged to provide an explanation to his visions of a better life on another planet. Vonnegut makes even a step further by deriving Billy’s illness from the physical consequences of the plane-crash. Apart from the fact that Billy was the only person which managed to survive still he suffered from severe brain damages. This might have created the perfect mental environment for creating Tralfamadorians. Another device the author uses in narrating is placing information about novels written by Billy’s favorite author Kilgore Trout. The plot of those novels also influenced Billy’s â€Å"time travels† as one of them, entitled The Big Board (p. 105) tells the story of a couple which have being abducted by aliens and shown in a zoo. It is than possible that Billy might have taken this story as a real one and projected the idea on himself. Vonnegut confirms this belief in chapter nine writing: â€Å"So they were trying to reinvent themselves and their universe. Science fiction was a big help. † (p. 50) Nevertheless the mental state of the main character is in no way clear for some parts of the chapter are narrated as if the protagonist experienced the travel: â€Å"Billy was unconscious for two days after that, and he dreamed of millions of things, some of them true. The true things were time-travel. † (p. 7) It seems obvious that the author deliberately makes the reader confused. This assumption can be proved as the narrator makes a clear distinction between time-travel and plain fantasy. However one can also say that â€Å"Vonnegut seems to supply internal evidence for a psychological explanation of Tralfamadore while at the same time denying that evidence with a contradictory narrative statement . † (Harris 235) It can only imply that reading Slaughterhouse-Five, one can suspect that Vonnegut’s intention is far from being interested in accuracy as far as the subdivision between reality and fiction is concerned. Only by such narration technique Vonnegut was able to allow the protagonist to solve the conflicts which thorn him apart, even if the only way to do it was to split his identity by introducing schizophrenia. Slaughterhouse-Five is obviously one of the novels that could not be forgotten for it differs to a large extent from other works from this genre. The author, on purpose, neglects all values and norms. What is more no principles of logic can be applied to the plot. Therefore just like the novel is narrated in a completely new way, it needs also to be read differently in order to fully understand it’s unique utterance. BIBLIOGRAPHY: (1)Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughterhouse-Five. Great Britain, Jonathan Cape Ltd 1970 available in PDF version on: http://chomikuj. pl/Angouleme/e-booki/Kurt+Vonnegut+-+Slaughterhouse-Five,58449367. pdf (2)A quote by R. D. Laing found on: http://www. quoteland. com/topic/Madness-Quotes/538/ (3)Charles B. Harris, â€Å"Time, Uncertainty, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. : A Reading of Slaughterhouse Five,'† Farmington Hills: Gale Group. October, 2001 Can be viewed at: http://infotrac. galegroup. com/galenet? cause=http%3A%2F%2Fgalenet. galegroup. com%2Fservlet%2FDC%2F%3FfinalAuth%3Dtruecont=sev=temptype=sessionsserv=no How to cite Discuss the Narrative Method of Kurt, Essays

Religion in American Society Essay Example For Students

Religion in American Society Essay The Role of Religion in American SocietyFor many years we have heard about the separation of church and state. Despite being written as part of the First Amendment in the Constitution, can the two really be separated? What law actually dictates the separation of church and state? The truth is that the government has never passed a law implementing a separation of church and state. What is actually written in the Constitution is: â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.† America is one of the few nations in the world whose sole existence is due to religion. The pilgrims were the first to settle in America. They came in search of religious freedom, as did many others after them. Many of America’s early documents, laws, and freedoms were based on religious beliefs. We could look at several similar examples. The fact is that freedom of religion, speech, press, peaceful assembly, and to petition the government are all covered in the First Amendment. The first of these firsts is the freedom of religion. This most likely means that when the authors of the Bill of Rights prepared the first ten amendment to the Constitution, the first thing on their minds was protecting or possibly creating a freedom of religion; but what about the separation of church and state? If our founding fathers intended the separation we are now levied with would their earliest documents contain phrases such as â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This is part of the Declaration of Independence. Here is another example from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, â€Å"†¦that is this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.† Even in the Pledge of Allegiance the nation is referred to as â€Å"†¦one nation under God†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Religion also plays an important role in politics. As once stated by Ronald Reagan â€Å"politics and morality are inseparable, and as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. † History records it, and current events confirm it. Yet here in the U.S. some people still are not convinced. The new fusion of Christian fundamentalism with a so-called political conservatism has been branded the most potent political force in the nation today. People who practice fundamentalist politics and have school prayer at the top of their legislative agenda talk of a return to traditional values. In my opinion there is no value more traditional than that of separation of church and state. It is our great gift to the history of the world. During the 97th and 98th Congresses, there were repeated attempts to dilute this quality, which has distinguished our society from all others. There have been bills to strip the federal courts of jurisdiction over school prayer. Nearly 200 years after the drafting of the Constitution, the Supreme Court for the first time ruled that prayer and Bible reading in public schools encouraged by the State constitutes an establishment of religion in violation of the first amendment. At the time of these decisions, 26 states permitted Bible reading in the public schools and 13 authorized the saying of the Lord’s Prayer. .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 , .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .postImageUrl , .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 , .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:hover , .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:visited , .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:active { border:0!important; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:active , .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126 .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u9680b7e70871180f418125ba2b754126:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Evolution of Media Violence Essay In each case, the court ruled that voluntary school programs including Bible reading or prayer violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment. In both rulings, the court went beyond the language of the establishment clause to construct an interpretation of it, which would overturn the long-standing state practices. What is worse is that radical rewrites of our Constitution have been put forward as good, old-fashioned morality. The Constitution is not a self-enforcing document. Each succeeding generation must shore up the wall of separation between church and state or else it will come tumbling down. The decisions of the judicial system did a lot to strengthen that wall in the early 60s. Now it is up to us to see that a simple legislative majority does not undo those decisions. Bibliography: