I don't care about the sign, Moose. I just need something to rant about this morning.<g>
We are well down the road to tolerance, but have we discarded all forms of respect for religion along the way? It's a question, not an accusation. If we are trying to save people from religious persecution, what's at the end of our road of religious tolerance if there is no God?
Consider that most men in this country support women's right to vote, even though they don't believe in the feminist point of view. However, we all believe that women have a right to believe in feminism. Shouldn't we extend the same courtesy to Muslims who believe in transcendalism, as the Pope put it? Shouldn't we condemn anti religious or agnostic comments by anyone in our society? Maybe we should extend the same level of anti discrimination for religious beliefs that we do for feminism and racism. Let's make multicultural pluralism work so that everyone is free to practice religion without humiliation or intimidation from people that think God should be removed from our society.
People in this country would be more offended if you made a negative statement about women's rights or minority rights than if you made a negative statement about religion. If you make a negative comments about a woman's anatomy or tell a racially insensitive joke, you will get your ass fired from the job or kicked out of any college in the country. I applaud the civil rights defense. However, any subject related to God has slipped to the lowest priority for acceptable conversation. People are free to blasphemy religion in any way they see fit, with no recourse to the people they are offending.
The problem with multicultural pluralism or secularism is that we have removed all rights for people to practice their religion. God has been disgraced to the level of taboo. Talk about him and your reputation is toast. How is that in the spirit of freedom from religious persecution upon which civil rights was constructed? If people had their rights to religion protected just like feminism and racism, why aren't there any people getting fired from their jobs for making rude comments about the religious dorks in their office.
I don't blame anyone in the US for intolerant Muslims. It is their problem, not ours. If we are going to help the Islamic community deal with intolerant radicals, I encourage Westerners to provide unconditional support to the moderates. for the first time, I think the Islamic countries are viewing the US as an ally against the extremists whom they no longer trust. We don't need to pontificate to the moderates that they had it coming because they follow the rule of religion inside of their own culture. A little courtesy and respect will go a long ways. |
