And don't kid yourself. This movement to expunge all evidence of our Judeo/Christian heritage from government is BRAND NEW. No more than 30 years old. It is a RADICAL CHANGE.
I think that everyone is hyperventilating over this to the point where people can't even talk to each other any more about it. I consider the matter serious, as well, but I think what is serious is the divisive hyperventilating, not the alleged "radical change."
I don't know what this movement is to "expunge all evidence of our Judeo/Christian heritage from government" is. There may be a few nut who want to do that. There are a few of every sort of nut imaginable around. But the nuts on both sides of this are exercised over the mutual hyperbole, not the fact, best I can tell. It is human nature to look at the nuts and see a movement. I am fearful of some of what the evangelical nuts say, too, because I am outside that community and have no way to judge whether there is a movement or just a few nuts. I've seen prominent evangelicals express their plans for a theocracy. Should I be afraid of that? Probably not. And you shouldn't be afraid of the nuts on my side, either. We should sort this out like reasonable people.
I am a certifiable secular humanist and agnostic/atheist. I don't live in the evangelist world. I don't even know people who are conspicuously religious, although many are personally religious. I operate in a secular sub-culture. I assure you that I do not know a living soul who is not appreciative of our Western heritage and cognizant of the key role religion played in the founding of our country. I know of no living soul who has any interest in removing "God" from our currency, for example. Like I said, there are likely some nuts out there, but a viable movement? Gimme a break.
The seculars I know want only to make public policy on a secular basis, recognizing that that will draw indirectly on our Jedeo/Christian heritage. And to not be treated as second class citizens. Installing the Ten Commandments so prominently as the guiding force behind a civil courthouse is terribly disrespectful of people like me. It's really rubbing our perceived irrelevance (and assumed sinfulness, probably) in our faces. Not only that, it's disrespectful to the Jews of your Judeo/Christian heritage and to Christians who have a different set of commandments. It's tacky and disrespectful and rude. That's the bad-manners part. As for the Constitutional part, it does smack of establishment the way Judge Moore has handled it and will so smack until and unless everyone else's list of commandments gets equal billing.
And I still don't see why people don't get that. |
