Retired Bubblehead
March 27th, 2009, 9:54 pm
I saw a remarkable news story online last week concerning the lawsuit filed against the government by an atheist lawyer, seeking to get the Oath of Office changed to remove the phrase, “So help me God”. The plaintiff is the same person who originated the effort against the Pledge of Allegiance. His stated goal is to eliminate ALL references to God from anything having to do with government.
What made this story remarkable was not its content. Rather, it was the remarkable coincidence that my daughter interrupted me while I was reading it, because she needed help with her World History homework. She was having trouble remembering the story from the Ramayana (one of the sacred texts of Hinduism) that they had covered that day in class, and she was confused by the self-contradictory aspects of the gods Siva and Vishnu.
The activists who expressed outrage at the “implied religion” they saw in the moment of silence the Commonwealth proposed on the anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy have thus far voiced no objection to this portion of my daughter’s public-school curriculum. Nor have they registered any objection to the time she spent last month studying Anubis, Osiris, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Apparently, they believe that the First Amendment only protects their children from being contaminated by exposure to the Judeo-Christian religion.
Being a Christian who's been happily married to a practicing Witch for over twenty years now, I suspect I have a somewhat different take on this story than most. I got to thinking, "What happens if we carry this plaintiff's desires to their logical conclusion?" You can't use the First Amendment to banish only one particular deity from the public square. That would be clearly unconstitutional. If you kick ANY of them out, then you have to kick them ALL out.
I know people who actively revere the Greek gods and goddesses. Every image of them and reference to them would have to go, from any textbook purchased with tax-dollars and from any museum receiving taxpayer subsidy. The same with the Egyptian and Norse gods and goddesses, who also have living worshippers among my circle of friends. Images of and references to Siva and all of his/her Hindu peers are out, too. Likewise images of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), the only other known child of a virgin birth. Totem poles, images of coyotes, ravens, and crocodiles ... the list of sacred images boggles the mind. But they would all need to go.
Or maybe we could let ALL of the religions stay, and let each individual choose the religion, or absence of religion, that suits them? You know, like the Framers actually intended?
What made this story remarkable was not its content. Rather, it was the remarkable coincidence that my daughter interrupted me while I was reading it, because she needed help with her World History homework. She was having trouble remembering the story from the Ramayana (one of the sacred texts of Hinduism) that they had covered that day in class, and she was confused by the self-contradictory aspects of the gods Siva and Vishnu.
The activists who expressed outrage at the “implied religion” they saw in the moment of silence the Commonwealth proposed on the anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy have thus far voiced no objection to this portion of my daughter’s public-school curriculum. Nor have they registered any objection to the time she spent last month studying Anubis, Osiris, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Apparently, they believe that the First Amendment only protects their children from being contaminated by exposure to the Judeo-Christian religion.
Being a Christian who's been happily married to a practicing Witch for over twenty years now, I suspect I have a somewhat different take on this story than most. I got to thinking, "What happens if we carry this plaintiff's desires to their logical conclusion?" You can't use the First Amendment to banish only one particular deity from the public square. That would be clearly unconstitutional. If you kick ANY of them out, then you have to kick them ALL out.
I know people who actively revere the Greek gods and goddesses. Every image of them and reference to them would have to go, from any textbook purchased with tax-dollars and from any museum receiving taxpayer subsidy. The same with the Egyptian and Norse gods and goddesses, who also have living worshippers among my circle of friends. Images of and references to Siva and all of his/her Hindu peers are out, too. Likewise images of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), the only other known child of a virgin birth. Totem poles, images of coyotes, ravens, and crocodiles ... the list of sacred images boggles the mind. But they would all need to go.
Or maybe we could let ALL of the religions stay, and let each individual choose the religion, or absence of religion, that suits them? You know, like the Framers actually intended?