Now I Get It
John McKay has cleared up some of my confusion about where a few of these off-the-wall wingnut ideas come from – their perverse understanding of the Constitution.
They are concerned about Sharia law, because they want to implement their version of Biblical law, and under their distorted view of the First Amendment, it can be done.
All of those people who keep quoting the First Amendment as a reason that Sharia law can’t be implemented in the US are thinking of a wall between church and state, but the fundies think of it as a check-valve or diode, a one-way restriction. While government isn’t allowed to interfere with the church, the church is free to do whatever it wants to government.
They don’t understand that the government can’t enforce religious laws precisely because they are religious, and enforcement would be the equivalent of establishment. They can’t make it to the logical conclusion because they believe what they want to do is morally superior.
In their universe it makes perfect sense.
October 3, 2010 2 Comments
