Constant Opinions

I became aware of the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm earlier today and just had to participate. It has long seemed to me that evangelicals have been trying to move the United States in that direction, and more recently have been making headway with willing politicians.

Obviously, I don’t approve.

One can argue all you like that this country was founded on Christian principles, just as you can disagree with that statement. But in either case, if this country were meant to establish its laws based on the Christian Bible (and which version?), wouldn’t that have been written directly into the Constitution.

Oh, wait. They added the first amendment this way instead:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Mmm… doesn’t sound much like a preference for Christianity or the Bible to me. Maybe I’m crazy.

I don’t mind politicians proclaiming that they belong to one religion or another. Freedom of religion means that you can belong to whichever religion you like. But mess with my rights or anyone else’s rights to believe as they choose, and we have a problem.

Take a topic such as abortion. I can’t imagine having one myself. I don’t like that some people get them so casually. But I don’t consider my personal feelings sufficient to justify taking the right to an abortion away from others, even those who are relatively casual about it.

Being a member of the majority religion does not mean you can require others to obey the rules of your religion. Majority rule does not mean you can oppress the minority religions. Similarly, enforcing the idea that you cannot demand that the laws of your religion be obeyed by all is not an attack on your religion. It’s simply a recognition that you cannot push your beliefs on the entire country.

If you want to read more on these topics, I suggest heading on over to First Freedom First and start reading.

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Filed under: Controversial, Politics