Tuesday, December 4, 2007

"Dear, (to whom it may Concern)......"


So we’re hanging out this past weekend at the Social Conservative BBQ and most of the gang is there: the gun “enthusiasts”, the fiscal conservatives, the neos, the comp-cons, the South Parkers and even a few libertarians came straggling in later…. without any food or drink. They're always doing that. Anyway, everything was going along swimmingly when someone, can’t remember who, rolled the school prayer grenade out on to the table. Uh-oh. No one said a word – just wary eyes cast about the backyard. Well, we couldn’t resist – we jumped on it and yeah… 10 minutes later we’re banished to the basement to play beer-pong with the South Parkers.

So, what’s with that:

Our opposition to school prayer turns the usual argument against school prayer on its head and, as such, is perfectly consistent with our conservative philosophy. What you usually hear from school prayer opponents is that they don’t want the Church/organized religion interfering or influencing affairs of the state. “Theocracy!”, they cry as they trot out the well-worn but dubiously-applied “separation of church and state” mantra.

Alternately, though, our fear is that of the state meddling in the affairs of organized religion in this country.

You all know how this would work and it wouldn’t be pretty. If school prayer was ever allowed you would need of course, a blue ribbon panel or task force to craft the prayer language. Of course, this task force would have to be comprised of Christians, Atheists, Agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, etc., etc… basically any religious or non-religious faction under the sun to ensure no offending language would find its way into the “prayer”.

And of course, exercising all due diligence to ensure that this wouldn’t happen, this task force would produce a prayer that is so weak, so limp, so flaccid, so utterly meaningless, irrelevant and void of content that the only entity that would be offended is the Almighty himself. And that is something we don’t think even our Social Conservative lodge brothers want on their hands.

P.S. Having said all that, disciplining the high school valedictorian, for example, for invoking the name of God at the high school graduation speech is petty, narrow-minded, demonstrable of cowardice and quite possibly bigoted.

5 comments:

Road Dawg said...

Lets not confuse free speech with school prayer. The opinion or reflections of a valedictorian do not represent the position of the school and therefore should not be censored. A bible study or student group that participates in prayer whether it is to God, Jesus, mohammed, or Buddha, should engender the same free speech rights.

With the same concern we have with offending God with meaningless, flaccid, void of content prayer, we always must be concerned with the content going the other way… gay bashing, anti science type prayer if some would have their way, or possibly praying for the execution of mo-teddy bearing blasphemers.

I wish I knew how to paste a picture here, a teddy bear wearing a mohammed tee-shirt, you know, the one with the bomb for a turban. Now that’s funny, Please put this on my Christmas wish list.

So the best bet is to get the school out of the prayer business. Let the students pray on their own time. Do I want a Catholic teacher leading school prayer? No, but if there is a Catholic Club with a volunteer teacher leading them in Bible study on Wednesday lunch, that is free speech. And it should not cross those boundaries.

I quote,
“Besides, why is the city council of Madison, Wisconsin's refusal to display a Nativity scene on the front lawn of city hall a bad thing? Why would I want an entity that tickets my car for parking it overnight outside a club because I chose to take a cab home instead of getting behind the wheel, then turnaround and attempt to interpret for me the Ground Zero for the forgiveness for all mankind? In other words: "DMV, stay the hell away from the Baby Jesus!!!"

I love that quote!!!

Look familiar?

Dean said...

'Dawg.... you're killing me. I was actually going to go with that referenced quote which was part of my "Please don't forward me your 'The infidels are banning Christmas' emails" for a post.

Man... talk about giving away the plot.

Dean said...

'Dawg.... I'm going with it anyway. heh.

Road Dawg said...

sorry, it was meant as a tribute

Jacob the Syrian Hamster said...

Linked!