(no subject)

[ambitious_wench]

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything to my journal; Anything of real meat, at least. As some of you know, I subscribe to a mailing list of fairly diverse folks, religion and politics. We are mostly white with one woman who identifies as Native American, a couple of Jews--one Ashkenazi, the other unknown; I suspect he also is Ashkenazi. We have a married couple who are Fundamentalist Christians, self-identified. We have Unitarians, Pagans, and Atheists as well.

Recently a discussion started around a poll that said among other things:

"Display of a monument to the Ten Commandments in a public school or government building"
Approve 70%
Disapprove 29
Undecided 1

"Display of a monument with a verse from the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic religion, in a public school or government building"
Approve 33
Disapprove 64
Undecided 3

In a country made up of Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, and other non-Christian religions, why are we favoring one religion over another?

Or, as the conservative Christian says, is this merely historical?

What say you, good folks?

Comments

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

I say people want to see enshrined what they believe in. Which is understandable.

In this case, it's also wrong.

IMO, of course.

[redhead-sue.livejournal.com]

What I say is that no religious object/symbol/etc. should be in any public buildings, including a school. It's the whole separation of church and state thing. It's also the whole "respecting people's differing beliefs" thing. So I can't understand why such a large percentage of your group was cool with the Ten Commandments (but of course, not the Koran). Maybe they think fo the Ten Commandments as basic rules of how to live as a good person, and therefore a good thing to have in schools. To that I say, put up a poster of "Everything I Needed to Know I learned in Kindgergarten" and be done with it.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

It's also the whole "respecting people's differing beliefs" thing. So I can't understand why such a large percentage of your group was cool with the Ten Commandments (but of course, not the Koran).

I lurk on that list (Hiya, ambitious_wench!) and just to clarify: we weren't the group polled, we were just bitching about discussing it.

What we were arguing about can be read here (assuming it's still up):
http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm

all or none

[malloc1024.livejournal.com]

Me, I don't really want anyone putting up any monuments of any sort that I have to pay for. That having been said, I know that they will put them up anyway.

This can be done in a Constitutional way.
Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Now, remembering that I am a software engineer and not a lawyer, the establishment clause has generally been interpreted by the courts as preventing government for passing legislation that would promote one religion over another. It does not, as far as I have been able to glean, prevent religion in general from being promoted. The hang-up comes when you get specific.

So, my solution is this: If you wan't to put up a monument that may be considered by reasonable people to have religious signifigance, you must put up monuments of similar signifigance that represent all other religious points of view. This must be done in such a way that no monument is aesthetically more important than any other. All the monuments must have equal aesthetic weighting in terms of their size and placement.

If that doesn't slow people down from putting up monuments, I don't know what will.

[http://users.livejournal.com/dale_cooper_/]

This is the difficulty of living in a nation that wanted to be open to all, but was basically started by christian-types. Trying to create a new culture, a melting pot one, no less, is not something that happens in a short amount of time. Two hundred, three hundred years is a short amount of time when you compare it to cultures in Africa, Europe and Asia. Of course, as a hobby conspiracy theorist (mostly stuff involving the whole Freemasonry thing), I can't help but look at this as a possible small sign of something unseen attempting to cause upheaval.

I personally don't think any sort of "holy book" should be a monument. They should be studied, not shaped out of cement and placed where pigeons can stain it. A monument is not going to help you learn, or explore, or help you decide what your path is.

Okay, that was scattered...

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

I say we eat figs.