Church and State

Does this scare the crap out of anybody else??

Just remember, these people hold the power over what you're children will learn in Texas public schools.

Today, May 6th, other than being the first Thursday in May, is also the National Day of Prayer.  This government recognized day gets the pot of the culture wars boiling over.  It's hard to swing a dead cat without hitting someone who has severely strong opinions about the merits or faults of this event.  It doesn't help that it's sponsored by an organization that is overtly Christian with goals that clearly lean toward intertwining that religion with government.

But for me, this day simply reminds me of a verse from the Bible (KJV), Matthew 6:5-6

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are:  for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.  Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

But with most things in the Bible, I'm sure you can find another verse that completely contradicts this one if you look hard enough.  So let them go ahead and publicly display their prayer, God will take care of them, Jesus said so.  As for me, I'm still waiting for the government sponsored National Day of Reason.  Yeah, I think I'll be waiting a long time, because those two words, Government and Reason, just don't go together.  But, Government and hypocrisy...sure that fits just right.

I've been quietly sitting on the sidelines as the Texas State Board of Education has gone about re-writing the Social Studies curriculum standards that will be in effect for the next decade and could affect textbooks bought in many other states around the country.  I've done this partly for my sanity and partly because I'm sick of seeing these idiots use their position to push their far right religious agenda into the schools by removing figures they see as "liberal" and replacing them with more "conservative" figures.  The change getting the most press is the removal of Thomas "wall between church and state" Jefferson and replacing him with John Calvin.

But on the positive side, Don McLeroy lost his primary election and will no longer be on the Texas SBOE after the next election later this year.  The downside is, he gets to continue to do damage until that time.

Recently, Roger Ebert stepped into the ring to take a swing at this gas bag of an opponent, and he scored a knock-out in my book.  It's worth the read and the associated videos help to underscore the points being made.

The best is saved for last:

"Does it make me a liberal if I believe Jefferson has been more central to American history than Calvin? That Lincoln was our greatest president, and Davis not our President at all? That the Theory of Evolution towers with majesty above those who, in some cases, believe the earth may be 10,000 years old, and that men walked the earth with dinosaurs? No, it doesn't make me a liberal. It makes me an educated, rational being. Unfortunately, in some precincts of Texas that may appear to be nearly as bad."

Ditto.

Over the last few weeks, there's been a ruckus up in Washington State over some holiday displays at the capitol building there.  Next to the traditional holiday tree and a nativity scene, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) put up a placard celebrating the Winter Solstice.  The sign is shown below.

Photo by Brent Nicastro

I think you can understand why this might cause some problems...

Many people may have missed it, but a few weeks back thirty-three churches defied IRS regulations and conducted sermons that endorsed specific political candidates.  They called it "Pulpit Freedom Sunday".  The IRS rules are pretty clear on this.  All 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations are banned from endorsing any political candidate in the capacity of that non-profit organization.  This applies not only to religious non-profits, but to any 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit including charities.

Leaders of these organizations are still free to express their opinion outside the capacity of their organization by using the four magic words, "as a private citizen".  No one is preventing anyone from talking about whom they support in any political campaign.  No freedoms are being impinged, no rights violated, however, some individuals seem to forget where the line should be drawn between religion and politics.

The IRS rule in question has been in place for 54 years and the goal of this small group of churches is to get a court case started that will be a challenge to this law.  Now, why is this just wrong?  Well, I was listening to a podcast last night and heard the head of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, discuss this issue and I thought her response summed it up very well.  She said

"I think it's a rare congregation of whatever faith tradition that holds people who have exactly the same ideas, and a pastor's job, at its best, is to seek to feed and nurture and encourage every member of the flock and not just the ones who agree with you.  And if you take a public position on one particular person then you in some sense elevate that person to a god within your religious tradition.  It seems wholly inappropriate......I will make a decision when I cast my own ballot and I don't think it's my job to tell other people how to cast theirs."

How refreshing.  This is from a religious leader who is currently facing a partial seceding of the flock over the church's views on gays and lesbians.  Yea! a new faction is born!  That's what the podcast was discussing, but this question near the end, and the thoughtful response is what caught my attention.

When will religious leaders realize their political views are not what the congregation is coming to hear.  They are coming to church to share their faith and to hopefully better understand their faith.  Isn't that the mission of the pastor? to help their congregations become more connected to their faith?  The fact that these leaders would put their church's in jeopardy over something so trivial shows their lack of caring of the impact to the larger whole.

The solution is simple.  If the leader of a church wants to tell his congregation how to vote, let that church pay its taxes like the rest of us and then I'm happy to let them say whatever they want, but until then, leave your political views to yourself and go back to doing the work that you originally chose to do.

I'm not going to say much about this since I already said my piece back when the legislature passed the bill allowing Bible classes in Texas public high schools more than a year ago...but now it's back in the news as the Texas State Board of Education, that bastion of creationists, decided on how the class should be taught...and what do they do?  They leave it open to the local school districts.  Hmm, shouldn't be a problem, right?  Why should we have consistent standards on such a touchy subject?  What could possibly go wrong?

There is a stink being raised down in Florida over their proposal to offer a specialty license plate that includes a picture of a cross in front of a stained glass window with the words "I believe".  The concern being raised is that the specialty plate implies that Florida is endorsing a specific religion.

This is a tough call.  Certainly the cross is a specific symbol for the Christians, but as long as the state allowed any group to create and sponsor their own specific plate, I don't really see an issue with it, but that's the rub.  Would this then open the gate for fringe groups to create their own plates?  For example, what if the Scientolgists wanted a plate of their own?  or how about hate groups?

I guess this is why God created bumper stickers.  That's the medium for getting your personal views displayed to the driver behind you in traffic, because we all know, they really want to know your feeling about world peace or who you're going to vote for.  But if you're going to go for a religious one, I would suggest this one.

I get really tired of the "God Bless America" or "God Bless Texas" crap out there.  Why should God bless America?  Why not ask him to bless someplace that really needs it.  We're doing pretty good, so let's give God a break and let him work on the rest of the world for a while.

In case you were wondering, Texas already has plates that are generic observences of faith.

Along with these are about a couple hundred other specialty plates.  If you really want to see them all head on over.

Texas Specialty Plates Website

As for me, I'll leave my plates clean along with my bumpers and make my feelings known here instead.

The Supreme Court of the United States opened Monday with some noteworthy news.  They declined to review two cases involving challenges to the separation of Church and State.  Keep in mind this is just 2 cases out of hundreds they declined to review, but it's a good sign for upholding the Constitution and keeping the separation between Church and State...for now...

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State has sued the Round Rock Texas school district on behalf of some parents and a student for promoting prayer at the graduation ceremonies of their 4 high schools.

You can read their article about it here.

Basically, what was happening is that the school district would sponsor a vote of the student body at each of its 4 high schools to decide if a prayer should be read at the graduation ceremonies, when one of the schools voted no, the district asked that school to vote again.

This is wrong on many levels, first that the school district would sanction this type of thing, second that they think a vote should decide a religious issue and finally that they apparently had a desired result in mind.