Faith Education (was -RE: [HPFGU-OTChatter] the Eight Days of Chanukah)

[IggyMcSnurd]

>Erin:
>
>Yeah, there are lots of those Southern Baptists in Alabama, aren't 
>there, Iggy?  Practically all of my friends are (I'm Methodist) and 
>one of the worst moments I've had with that recently was going to the 
>mall last month with a big group of friends and passing a booth with 
>a petition to support Roy Moore and his ten commandments monument.  
>All my friends ran over there to sign it, and I just sort of stood 
>there akwardly.  

*the rest snipped*

Iggy here:

*laugh* I would have happily debated the subject with them.  (There are
some things I won't back down from... and defending what I believe is
one of them.)

The thing that annoys me is that the people who were the first to
protest the removal of the Ten Commandments monument, citing freedom of
expression of one's religion usually, would also be the first to sign a
petition requesting its removal if it was a monument to the Torah, the
Koran, or the Threefold Law.  (Well, ok... the Ten Commandments
represents Jewish laws as well, but you get the idea...  Imagine it
having a Menorah on it rather than a Cross.)

There is, supposedly written into law, a separation of Church and State.


This means that there is not supposed to be a State religion. (not that
you'd know it by looking at our money... and I think we'll have both a
black and a woman president before a non-Christian one ever gets
elected.)

This means that the government supposedly can't tax churches of any
sort.  (I guess this explains why there are so many televangelists...)

This means that the Church is not to exert its influence political
issues.  (Anyone here ever hear of Jerry Falwell and the Moral
Majority??  Not to mention, and Erin can probably attest to this, that
churches will hire billboards that use a religious approach and try to
imply that it's a sin to vote for something they disagree with.)

This means that people aren't supposed to be nervous or scared to speak
their minds about what they believe... anywhere they want to speak their
views... respectfully, at least.  (I've had probably 5 conversations
about faith and religion with someone down here in the last 3.5 years
I've lived here.  Mostly because I worry that, with the grapevine around
here, I'd end up being cast out by the entire town simply because I
stated a view or two that doesn't mesh with the Bible...)


Where was I??  Oh, yeah... sorry for the tangent there...

Anyhow...

I personally agree with the monument being removed because, as a
government facility, anything they support of a specific religion
breaches that "separation of Church and State."  The monument implied
that the government (of Alabama, at the least) supported a specific
religion...


'Nuff said... before I go off on a tangent again.  *grin*

Iggy McSnurd