I still wonder how the whole Ashcroft discussion got diverted into talk of the behaviour in question being "wrong", or "illegal". I, for one, certainly never said it was either. I said it was rude and bad management practice, but neither of those things is illegal. If they were, the prisons would be a lot fuller than they already are. Neither are they "wrong" in any grand sense.
I'm still not sure they are what we want to see in an Attorney General.
I should point out, again, that there is no objection to Ashcroft praying, though I do have to wonder, personally, what he would do if the law he is sworn to serve requires him to act against the principles of his religion. I hope you see the huge difference between, say, an individual Muslim employee rolling out his mat, facing Mecca, and saying prayers and an organized prayer session conducted by a supervisor in a workplace. If you don't, there's hardly any point in discussing the subject.
Group display of religious sentiment, in public, is a lot more than a religious exercise. It can also serve as a proclamation of superiority, a means of determining who shares one's own belief, a device to intimidate, a device to select. In many cases - I would venture to say most - these displays have a lot less to do with faith than with points certain individuals wish to make with their neighbors. Any time anyone, of any faith - not necessarily religious - proclaims that faith in public, look for a hidden agenda. You'll usually find one.
Combine those realities with the delicate position occupied by a nation's chief law enforcer - and there is no doubt that an individual surrenders certain liberties by assuming such a post - and you get an unnecessarily volatile mixture that can and should be easily avoided. |
