Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of a Christian Nation Part 3

Came across this disturbing opinion piece on Right Wing Watch:

Against the backdrop of the religious mis-education of the nation, evangelical Christians must embrace (once and for all) that they must let their voices be heard in politics, the arts, and every arena of our culture. Although Catholics are well represented on the Supreme Court, there will likely be important cases that will need the insight of unbiased evangelicals to create an atmosphere for true justice. Failure of the faith community to engage in the world of politics and processes like the selection of judges could hurt the Christian community decades from now.

Protestants must take action today! We should return to the foundations that have made the US great. Further, we must not just act on behalf of our needs, alone. We must lead the country back to the safety of its guiding principles. At the same time, despite our personal views, we must act on behalf of the entire American family – religious and secular alike. Further, we must continue to encourage religious diversity and even atheists to remain true to their beliefs as it relates to the political process. The repression of minority points of view is un-American and petty.

Harry R. Jackson, Jr.  thinks that Catholics are biased and we need the unbiased protestants on the Court to keep those evil Catholics in check.  If the Religious Right gets their way in this country they will turn back the clock on human rights.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of a Christian Nation Part 2

Mass. Catholic school won’t admit lesbians’ son

BOSTON – A Roman Catholic school in Massachusetts has withdrawn its acceptance of an 8-year-old boy with lesbian parents, saying their relationship was “in discord” with church teachings, according to one of the boys’ mothers.

It’s at least the second time in recent months that students have not been allowed to attend a U.S. Catholic school because of their parents’ sexual orientation, with the other instance occurring in Colorado.

Let Freedom Ring!

 

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of a Christian Nation

From Americans United for Separation of Church and State:

Inquisition In Jacksonville: Religious Right Grills Muslim Nominee For Rights Commission

Council Member Clay Yarborough, for example, sent a questionnaire – inquisition might be a better term — to Ahmed, demanding to know his views on everything from gay rights to the appropriateness of “under God” in the Pledge and on U.S. currency. No other nominee had been subjected to such probing in the past, but Yarborough apparently thought it was time to do so.

At a subsequent council session, Council Member and First Baptist congregant Don Redman, who serves as the council’s “chaplain,” led the audience in a Christian prayer, then demanded that Ahmed come forward for questions.

Redman said to Ahmed, “I would like you to pray to your god for us.” The implication was clear to many in the audience: Redman had just offered a prayer to the real God on behalf of the council and the assembled throng. Now he was inviting Ahmed to offer one to his Islamic deity.

Audience members, many of who came from a progressive group called OneJax, were appalled at the temerity of the demand and noisily burst into discussion and derision. The uproar finally settled down when Council President Richard Clark threatened to clear the room.

This is deplorable.  Christianity is anything but a tolerant religion.  One needs only a cursory reading of the Bible to understand that.  A truly Christian nation would be a very ugly place.

Those Wonderful Private Companies Government Should Emulate

So is the kind of private business we should run our schools and other government agencies like: 

BP Spent Millions to Evade Safety Rules

Posted on: May 7, 2010 9:09 AM, by Ed Brayton

I’m sure this will come as an enormous shock to those who are completely oblivious to reality. British Petroleum, while posting record profits, also spent record amounts of its own money on lobbying to weaken environmental and safety regulations and keep the taxpayer subsidy spigot open over the last couple years. Antonia Juhasz reports some of the astonishing figures in The Guardian:

BP is one of the most powerful corporations operating in the United States. Its 2009 revenues of $327bn are enough to rank BP as the third-largest corporation in the country. It spends aggressively to influence US policy and regulatory oversight.In 2009, the company spent nearly $16m on lobbying the federal government, ranking it among the 20 highest spenders that year, and shattering its own previous record of $10.4m set in 2008. In 2008, it also spent more than $530,000 on federal elections, placing it among the oil industry’s top 10 political spenders.

Sometimes its possible to have a little too much faith in the private sector.  Read the rest of the post here on Dispatches from the Culture Wars.

Franklin Graham and the National Day of Prayer

This year’s National Day of Prayer event certainly caused quite the stir.  It all began with the Wisconsin judge declaring the government’s proclamation of a National Day of Prayer unconstitutional and then continued when Franklin Graham and Tony Perkins were disinvited to participate in the Pentagon’s ceremonies over the controversial views of both ministers.  The Religious Right has  been highly critical of both decisions and have been declaring them just two more examples of how our religious freedom in this nation is being eroded, particularly the religious freedom of Christians. 

This whole event is a perfect example of why it is necessary to keep government out of religion and vice versa.  I’ve posted before about Madison’s and Jefferson’s views on issuing proclamations of days of thanksgiving and prayers and their other views of church and state relationships.  I firmly believe that both men would have firmly agreed with the decision of Judge Crabb and would have urged the Pentagon to cancel the whole event entirely were they alive today.  Both men argued that when government shows any type of favor to one religion those who are left out of that favor are demeaned and devalued and their adherent’s equal rights diminished.  Even though Graham and Perkins were disinvited, ministers from the Roman Catholic church, various protestant churches, Judaism and Islam still participated in the ceremony.  Christianity itself wasn’t discriminated against, however, a particular form of Christianity was and this is the very reason why no National Day of Prayer should take place at all which involves any type of government participation whatsoever.  No matter how hard the government tried to include all religions in the day’s ceremonies, some were still left out and their adherent’s made to feel less equal than the other religious viewpoints that were allowed to participate. 

Religion is a divisive influence in society.  It does not bring people together.  There were those in the religious right who fought to keep this day intact and there were those among the same religious right who felt the day was nothing more than an ecumenical orgy of heresy.  Religion is divisive even among its practitioners and therefore the government needs to say out of it and we need to keep religion out of government. 

I think it is also ironic that among all the outcries of religious persecution and discrimination we saw as a result of the judical ruling and the disinvitation of Graham and Perkins, that Franklin Graham was still able to hold his own prayer service/media event on the very sidewalks in front of the Pentagon (if that’s not the public square I don’t know what is )without being arrested, detained or otherwise obstructed by the government.  Regardless of the ranting of the religious right, we still live in a country of immense religious freedom.

Letter to the Editor Has a Selective View of History

I didn’t buy these arguments for a Christian nation even when I was a believer and had every reason to embrace them.  I don’t deny that the culture of America at the time of the Revolution was a Christian culture but to insist that the founders specifically used the bible to form the three branches of government, that America is God’s chosen nation, that capitalism is the only biblical economic system and that somehow we have special blessings from God is just plain ridiculous.  From the Opinion page of today’s West Bend Daily News:

Rulings on faith stray from Constitution

  I read some outrageous news in the Daily News last month that a judge had struck down the National Day of Prayer with the stroke of a mighty pen, which she since has set aside because of appeals. The ruling is another nail in the coffin of the United States of America, hastening the day of fulfillment for President Obama’s declaration to the Muslim states that America is not a Christian country.
   We are a nation founded on biblical principals. We have truly been blessed by God bountifully.
   All government meetings were opened with a prayer. This was the norm until anti-Christian lawyers misinterpreted the Constitution by adding separation of church and state as unconstitutional. There is no such things as separation of church and state in our Constitution.
   Lately, the 9th District in California ruled to remove the cross and “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance to please two atheists. Now we get this scenario in Wisconsin.
   What is wrong with people giving thanks to our God for His blessings on a National Prayer Day? Why are some judges ruling in favor of atheists, homosexuals and those for separation of church and state – a fiction which the judge must know? Why are they trying to destroy the unique liberties and freedom of a great Christian country? This is appalling, and I am justly irate, disappointed and grievously saddened by the destructive direction these judges are taking using their power with the pen – extreme judicial tyranny doing grave harm to our nation.
   No other religion is persecuted as Christians are because they dare not under pain of death. Our one true faith must be defended at all costs. We must uphold our National Day of Prayer as Rep. Pat Strachota has said. This is Christian America yet.
   
Ronald W. Hepponstall West Bend

First of all Ronald does not understand the concept of equal rights for all.  When the government favors or endorses one religion over another it is creating an environment where those who do not adhere to that religion are cast as outsiders and are not recognized as being equal with those believers.  That is the concept that drove the founders vision of religious freedom.  In an earlier  post, that you can find here, about this topic I printed a letter from James Madison.  From what he said in that letter I doubt Madison would have agreed with Ronald.   Nor would Jefferson.   Neither of these two founders could be considered hostile to religion.  Both were firm believers themselves, although Jefferson leaned more toward deism, and both firmly believed in the freedom to believe as a person saw fit.  Imagine if a politician were to speak those same words today as they did in their letters.  Actually, we don’t have to imagine to hard.  Judge Crabb said as much in her ruling and look what has happened to her.

The Paranoia of Beck and Limbaugh

From Watching the Deniers:

The paranoid  style of American politics:  Beck, Limbaugh claim oil spill deliberate sabotage

To quote Limbaugh:  

But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment. So, since they’re sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they’re sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I’m just noting the timing here.”  

In short, the Obama administration deliberately sabotaged the Deep Horizon oil rig to create a disaster that would allow them to… I’m not sure. Provide an excuse for the cap-and-trade legislation? Blunt efforts for more offshore drilling of the coasts of the US?  

I call this the “I’m just saying…” approach to conspiracy theory making. In short, you don’t need to present evidence.  You simply connect two (or more) unrelated events and hint at a connection.  

Such conspiracy making is almost impossible to refute, as the accuser retreats to the fall back “Yeah, but I’m just saying…”  

It’s really quite amazing why anybody would believe anything these two say.  It’s also quite frightening that there are a lot of people who do believe what these two have to say.  Just goes to show that some people will believe anything no matter how irrational or incredible the source.

Benjamin Franklin: A Good Religion Does Not Need Government Support

Benjamin Franklin to Richard Price

9 Oct. 1780

I am fully of your Opinion respecting religious Tests; but, tho’ the People of Massachusetts have not in their new Constitution kept quite clear of them, yet, if we consider what that People were 100 Years ago, we must allow they have gone great Lengths in Liberality of Sentiment on religious Subjects; and we may hope for greater Degrees of Perfection, when their Constitution, some years hence, shall be revised. If Christian Preachers had continued to teach as Christ and his Apostles did, without Salaries, and as the Quakers now do, I imagine Tests would never have existed; for I think they were invented, not so much to secure Religion itself, as the Emoluments of it. When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig’d to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. But I shall be out of my Depth, if I wade any deeper in Theology, and I will not trouble you with Politicks, nor with News which are almost as uncertain; but conclude with a heartfelt Wish to embrace you once more, and enjoy your sweet Society in Peace, among our honest, worthy, ingenious Friends at the London. [Emphasis mine]

May Day and the National Day of Prayer

There is an ironic event occurring at the Lincoln Memorial on May 1.  It is called May Day and is being organized by conservative christian talk show host Janet Porter of Faith2Action.  Faith2Action is of course the typical right-wing christian organization opposing, homosexuality, evolution, global warming, gun control, democrats, government and anything else that would contradict their literal reading of the bible. 

Here is what this event is all about:

May Day 2010 – A Cry to God for a Nation in Distress

When: May 1st 2010 – Starting at Sunrise (6:10 A.M. EDT) and finishing at 2:00 P.M.
Where: The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

Join with Christian leaders of all denominations who love God to humble ourselves, pray, seek the face of God, and turn from our wicked ways—individually and as a nation.    Jesus will be front and center at May Day.   Prayers will be offered in Jesus’ Name!

Please plan on bringing blankets, sunscreen, bottled water, and food for lunch (unless you’re fasting from it), to the event.   We are not allowed to sell water or food, but will have a limited amount available to anyone who needs it in an emergency.

And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history:  that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

Abraham Lincoln, March 30, 1863

Proclamation appointing a National Day of Prayer and Fasting

Promote May Day with your friends and at your church.   Here are two flyers: one with all the details and one with several quotes.

We now also have a Bulletin Insert that can be used for the same purpose.

Click here for information on tour package options for buses.This event is not to impress the media or those in Washington, but to reach the heart of God.  Publicly repenting and crying out to God for His mercy instead of the judgment our many sins deserve.

Here is the irony.  The purpose of this day is almost identical to the National Day of Prayer.  Many christian conservatives are decrying the recent ruling that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.  They are claiming that the ruling represents further erosion of their freedom of religion and that Christianity has just been pushed further out of the public square, yet May Day is a solid example of just the opposite.  Here is the last piece of irony.  This event is happening without any type of government proclamation. 

Why can’t the organizers of the National Day of Prayer do what Janet Folger is doing and not involve the government in their nationwide call to prayer?  Surely they have the means to organize this day on their own without the help of the President.   After all, the National Day of Prayer organizer is the wife of James Dobson who controls one of the largest christian media outlets in the nation. 

May Day is an example of a perfectly legitimate free exercise of religion.  Rather than endorsing or encouraging participation in the event, the government is simply making public property available, and so long as it does so equally to other groups without regard to their viewpoint, there is no establishment clause violation.  May Day is an excellent example for the National Day of Prayer.  Keep government out of religion.  This is a nation of wide religious diversity and it is the government’s role to protect the equal rights of all to worship who, where, when, why and how.  It is not the role of the government to endorse any specific religion or practice.

Family Research Council Needs a Little Perspective on the National Day of Prayer Ruling

The religious right has lost all sense of perspective regarding the recent court ruling on the National Day of Prayer.  Take this April 16 press release from the ultra-conservative Family Research Council:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Family Research Council President Tony Perkins released the following statement regarding a ruling by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb declaring that the annual National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.

“Had Judge Crabb consulted the Constitution she was sworn to uphold, she might notice that Americans enjoy religious freedom – not by virtue of the courts, but in spite of them.  Contrary to her opinion, this ruling does not promote freedom, it crushes it.  Americans pray voluntarily.  And exercising that right together, as a willing nation, is exactly what the Founding Fathers intended.  To imply otherwise, is to suggest that the Constitution is unconstitutional.  Religion cannot be banned in America because it was never imposed – not by the Founding Fathers, and certainly not by the National Day of Prayer. 

“While this is one of many instances in which the courts have tried to banish God from the public square, this case reveals a level of supreme arrogance.  Ultimately, Judge Crabb is inferring that she found something in the Constitution that every President and Congress since 1775 has not: a hostile treatment of religion in public life. 

“We call on Congress to start the impeachment proceedings for Barbara Crabb, as she violated her sacred oath of ‘administering justice … under the Constitution and laws of the United States.’  What she has done to repress, we will use to revive.  When the great men and women of our past bent their knees to God on behalf of the ‘sacred fire of liberty,’ it was often during the nation’s darkest days.  My friends, it is time we join them.” 

This kind of stuff is getting ridiculous.  What has actually been declared unconstitutional?  Reading this and other releases by religious right groups you would think it was prayer itself.  What has been declared unconstitutional is the statute 36 U.S.C. Section 119 which states:

The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.

The full text of the court’s decision can be found here.  This is hardly the writing of some activist federal judge that hates religion.  Take this paragraph from page 4 of the ruling:

It bears emphasizing that a conclusion that the establishment clause prohibits the government from endorsing a religious exercise is not a judgment on the value of prayer or the millions of Americans who believe in its power. No one can doubt the important role that prayer plays in the spiritual life of a believer. In the best of times, people may pray as a way of expressing joy and thanks; during times of grief, many find that prayer provides comfort. Others may pray to give praise, seek forgiveness, ask for guidance or find the truth.  “And perhaps it is not too much to say that since the beginning of th[e] history [of humans] many people have devoutly believed that ‘More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.’” Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 433 (1962). However, recognizing the importance of prayer to many people does not mean that the government may enact a statute in support of it, any more than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge or practice rune magic. In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual’s decision whether and when to pray.

 

  And this paragraph from page 64 of the ruling:

 

It is important to clarify what this decision does not prohibit. Of course, “[n]o law prevents a [citizen] who is so inclined from praying” at any time. Wallace, 472 U.S. at 83-84 (O’Connor, J., concurring in the judgment). And religious groups remain free to “organize a privately sponsored [prayer event] if they desire the company of likeminded” citizens. Lee, 505 U.S. at 629 (Souter, J., concurring). The President too remains free to discuss his own views on prayer. Van Orden, 545 U.S. at 723 (Stevens, J., dissenting). only issue decided in this case is that the federal government may not endorse prayer in a statute as it has in § 119.

This is all just another example of the Persecution Complex run amok.