"Your interpretation of the sky fairy is offensive to my interpretation of the sky fairy."
That seems to be what Del. Penergrass is saying to a delegate representing parts of Montgomery County. She was offended that a prayer he led on Good Friday mentioned Jesus Christ (Pendergrass is apparently Jewish, although I don't know if she is secular or not). I am an atheist, so I think it's a little silly to believe in spirits that live outside of our world of space and time, but the world is a big place sometimes you just have to be cool and let people swing their arms as long as they don't hit you in the nose. Getting bent out of shape because someone mentioned Jesus on Easter is a little bit bananas when there are serious issues to discuss like how to fix the budget mess.
If Pendergrass wants to make the argument that prayer should not be said during the delegation meetings, that would at least make some sense given that there is supposed to be a separation of church and state. But that's not the approach that Pendergrass is taking. I know that SWPL Columbia liberals love to be offended almost as much as they like farmers markets and free health care, but do me a favor and just try to get along with the Christians so you can get the budget problem fixed without taxing me to death.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
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3 comments:
Shane is one of those self proclaimed open-minded people who in reality is so closed-minded it's not even funny. The stories I've heard about her, like her habit of slamming her chamber desk whenever a christian prayer is uttered, is appalling.
FM - I agree that there is a separation of church and state, but you are taking that notion out of context, as many people do. First, I don't believe those words are even in the actual constitution. If I;m not mistaken, those words are found in papers/documents that the Founding Fathers wrote - it may actually be one of Jefferson's papers. Anyway, the notion of having a separation of church and state is that the State can not force a particular religion on the people. By having a prayer spoken by a chaplain, or whomever, in the legislative chamber or whatever, is not forcing religion on the other legislators nor the people.
And, I would point out that in trying to muzzle those people who are not atheist or agnostic, atheists and agnostics are actually forcing their views on the rest of us. If Shane is atheist or agnostic (or Jewish) and doesn't like the prayer being spoken, then she can simply not join in that particular prayer. She shouldn't denegrade a religion that she doesn't prescribe to.
Those words are nowhere in our Constitution, and in fact, the country was very supporting of teaching religion in public schools when those words were written. It may be that the section in question refers to not allowing any church to control gov't but did not refer to gov't support of religion. We should be able to support private schools, for example, that save a tremendous amount of tax dollars.
Excellent point Anon. Many private schools cost less per student than what the nanny-state spends per student, and the results speak for themselves.
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