One more time with Adam, this time in response to my comments on his post about the one year anniversary of the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from my hometown’s Julia Davis Park:
Today was the 1st Anniversary of the removal of the 10 commandments being removed from Julia Davis Park in Boise. We had a 1st Anniversary prayer vigil/rally and I have to say Spirits were high. Most of us hadn’t heard too much since October on the Monument issue, but the Ten Commandment Attorney feels confident we’ll prevail. We had a good time of prayer…
The last two Marchs’ have been tough months for me as someone concerned about the culture with the removal of the monuments. [However] the State Senate had just passed parental consent legislation. There’s a reason why it’s called a “culture war”, there’s a lot of battles to be fought in the course of that and we must never lose hope, our nation depends on keeping hope alive.
What, a huge 30′ lighted cross on Table Rock isn’t enough to save Boise from the onslaught of godless heathenism anymore? Aw, the darn civil libertarians that keep intruding and demanding that public institutions using public money not display religious symbols on public property. Gosh, that’s just so darn… constitutional!
How bout this: let’s get the Idaho Hindu Association to erect a two-ton statue of Vishnu at Katheryn Albertson Park. No, wait, I know, that’s not part of “our heritage” in this “Christian nation.” But hey, our country was founded by Freemasons; let’s put a giant compass-and-T-square over in Ann Morrison Park.
I assume the “parental consent” law of which you wrote has to do with minors wanting to have abortions, right? I suppose it is logically consistent, considering that a teenage girl needs parental permission for a tattoo or piercing. Of course, not too many teenagers die from botched back-alley tattoos or belly-rings.
Gotta love conservative values: don’t teach ’em sex ed, or if you do, teach them wildly inaccurate data and scare tactics, withhold any reasonable mention of birth control, expect them to practice abstinence only, and when nature takes hold and hormones run wild, they have no clue on how not to get pregnant, and then keep them from getting an abortion, forcing them to bear a child or face parental retribution or keep it secret and get a hazardous abortion or try to induce miscarriage or just hide the pregnancy and abandon the infant in a school bathroom at prom. She never would have gotten pregnant anyway if we just could have kept the Ten Commandments in the park.
Culture war? You’re damn right. A war between those of us who want our society to finally evolve into a 21st century vision of freedom and liberty and equality and tolerance and self-determination and self-sovereignty and science taught in science classes and sex seen as natural not dirty, and those of you who’d rather be ruled by the straight white male dominance and Judeo-Christian mythological superstitions of the past.
We let you have all sorts of real estate where you can freely display the Ten Commandments — they’re called churches, and we even did you the favor of not taxing them (though we should, considering how much they want to play in the secular realm these days). You can even display them on your private property, highway billboards, and television shows. And trust me, it’s not like anyone doesn’t know what the Ten Commandments are by now.
But America was formed with the specific intent of escaping religious persecution and the dominance of religion in the affairs of state. While some Americans may answer to another law, America answers only to the Constitution.
(And Adam replied):
To clarify, there was a Ten Commandments monument in the park. It was removed without a public hearing and we’re seeking to give the public a right to vote on it.
To clarify, the First Amendment of the Consitution is not up for a public vote. Otherwise, the tyranny of the majority (as borne out in many polls) would vote to decimate many of our civil liberties.
How do you suppose the public would have voted regarding desegregation of schools in the 50’s?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… unless the people vote for it?
Taking down a Ten Commandments monument in no way prohibits you from worhipping Christ, even in the park if you wish. But placing graven images to Biblical verses in the public park does endorse Judeo-Christian religion.
