They Can Take Their Rood And Shove it
I keep hearing people, Senator Obama most recently, talk about a need to address issues of faith. Perhaps his faith accepts and endorses public proclamations, but for most of us raised as Christians it is a private matter. We were taught that public protestations of faith are hypocrisy, because that is what Christ taught in Matthew chapter 6. Are we expected to ignore the clear meaning of that chapter because the Christianists have chosen the path of the Pharisees? Are the Christianists exempt from the Bible as well as the Constitution?
When I see Roy Moore’s “Rock” in the Alabama Supreme Court, or this latest “construction” Karen has posted, I view them as poor representations of the “Golden Calf” mentioned in Exodus. When they stick G-d on the money or in the “Pledge of Allegiance” I consider it sacrilegious, just as Teddy Roosevelt did.
We are putting up with their wails about discrimination, but there is no great outcry when, as Elayne notes they hound a Jewish family from their home. Where is the outrage from the Bush brothers when, as Mustang Bobby reports, one of their preferred Christianist leaders, Rev. O’Neal Dozier, refers to Islam as a “cult”?
Finally Steve Gilliard reports on Sergeant Patrick D. Stewart, a man who was killed in action while in the service of this country. Because the he was a Wiccan, and the Wiccan pentagram is not on the list of VA approved symbols, not only will the government not supply a headstone with that symbol, but it is illegal for that symbol to be on a headstone in a national cemetery.
If Sergeant Stewart had been an Eckankar, a religion that has only existed since the mid-1960s the government would supply the headstone with the appropriate symbol, but Wicca, which has existed for centuries, isn’t on the list.
Christianists keep claiming that Wicca is related to Satan. I’m sorry, but Satan is a concept of the Torah, the Bible, and the Koran, not Wicca. Many religions have a concept of evil in them, and that evil is what the religions are combating.
Apparently the Christianists complain about discrimination, so no one will notice when they do it. Not that they’ll notice but it is: “Do unto others as you would have them unto you”, not: “Claim that others are doing unto you what you are doing unto them.”
7 comments
Apparently the Christianists complain about discrimination, so no one will notice when they do it. Not that they’ll notice but it is: “Do unto others as you would have them unto you”, not: “Claim that others are doing unto you what you are doing unto them.”
Oh, absolutely! This is exactly how I see them, too. Thanks for posting that!
Well their most frequent back-assed complaint about this being a *fair issue* to have candidates campaign on and making this a “qualification” they wish to see applied to Ofiiceholders and Public Policy…can called a “Litmus Test” – but – must come out AGAINST these views being foisted on the system from Article VI of our Constitution:
“…The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Which is just one tiny reason (among many) as to why I agree Religion IS and ought to Stay a private matter for individuals…but even more so for candidates and officeholder!
The frustration builds up, OWL, and sometime you have to release the pressure.
Karen, if you study history you will repeatedly see that every time church and state mixed, the church loses. The government never becomes moral, the church becomes politicized. To paraphrase John Locke, do you want to wager your immortal soul on the decision of a bureaucrat?
It’s hardly the government’s fault if churches can’t sway people.
I don’t think we’re at the point yet when we wager our souls on the decision of bureaucrats – with the exception of the capitalists-gone-crazy – but we are forced to wager our physical well-being on them.
Andante, I feel bad for all of the fools who listen to the Falwells and Robertsons and think it’s going to help them through the gates.
Bryan, which gates? the ones Rodin depicts so vividly? 🙂
(Sorry; I try to resist entering into discussions of Christian theological matters, because much of the viewpoint is so unlike my own. But this one was just hanging over the plate, begging me to swing…)
This is, of course, one of the major problems of sticking your religion into everyone’s politics – you lose the right to keep others out of your theology. The major religious wars of Europe were a prime example of what happens when religion and politics are welded together and the presence of many of my ancestors in this continent is a result.
If you keep your religion to yourself you tend to avoid centuries of warfare.