I must have received some bad information.
I thought, and I was taught, that in these United States, we have a policy of separation of church and state. I understood this policy came about because the weary folks who spent their time, energy, and intellect forming and founding this nation learned painful lessons from their history. I understood that people died to preserve our freedom not to have the government force us to pretend--because they can't really get inside our brain, yet--belief in whatever figment of their imagination they chose as a deity.
I thought we had freedom of religion here.
As it turns out, freedom of religion--which can only really exist if we separate the government from religious influence--is about as much a figment of the American imagination as the deities people worship.
Read this.
Barack Obama has not even taken office yet, and already he's disappointed me pandering to the Religious Right. I don't understand how he can claim that he is any kind of supporter of gay and lesbian rights when he asked a man, who opposes gay rights fiercely enough to support the California ban on gay marriage, to be part of his inauguration.
How is this not merging church and state?
This is not a new discussion to me, especially given the national slogan. My husband and I were just talking last night about how "in god we trust" is our national slogan, and I am baffled by how this became so. Does separate not mean what I think it means? Apart, not together? This one here, that one there? Space in between?
I've had online discussions with people who enjoy Christianity being merged with our government. They think George W. Bush was an awesome choice for President simply because he claimed to be Christian. (Never does it cross their minds that he might, just might, be saying he's a Christian to get them to vote for him and couldn't give one solid rat's puckered ass about god or Jesus, otherwise.) More than once, I've had these people use as points for their argument that "in god we trust" is on the money, or that Congress prays before each session, and a whole bunch of other violations of Constitutional law.
Instances of the law being broken don't convince me that the law is wrong. The only point that matters right now is that the Constitution clearly states that the government shouldn't respect any religion. The people who put their souls into thinking through and writing that document knew why.
I'm not a Christian, and I have a good list going of why I'm not. That's for another blog post. For now, I can enjoy the freedom to make that statement publicly. But these people who think it's perfectly fine to invoke the name of Jesus at an inauguration simply because the man being inaugurated happens to be Christian, are chipping away at our religious freedom.
I'm deeply sorry to say, that includes Barack Obama.
And if I'd known he would even consider asking Rick Warren, or any other evangelical, self-righteous, homophobic "minister" to deliver any kind of speech whatsoever, prayer or otherwise, at his inauguration, I would not have voted for him. Yes, Barack Obama has the right to be Christian, has the right to believe in whatever god he chooses. He has the right to be Muslim, too, the mere mention of which has caused many religious whack jobs to froth at the mouth and wet their pants with fear.
Wonder how they'd all feel if Barack Obama asked a Muslim to "lead the prayer" at his inauguration.
Yet it's perfectly fine for their god to be invoked, fuck the rest of us who don't believe in him. I live in this nation, too. I was born here. I pay taxes. I do my best to follow the law. I take responsibility for my life, for the choices I make, and the circumstances that befall me. I ought to be able to watch my President be inaugurated without having the Christian religion shoved down my throat.
Why do we need a religious service at all during the inauguration? If Obama, or any other president, wishes to pray, he can and should do that in his own private quarters. But prayer of any kind, religion of any kind, should not be foisted upon the entire citizenry, many of whom do not believe the way he does. Religion and government should never hold hands.
Why? That question has been answered repeatedly by more eloquent writers than I. Nobody seems to be listening.
As I write this, I'm incensed that religious freedom means so little, especially to a man I really hoped would bring reason and honor back to our presidency and to our nation.
Like I said, I had bad information.
Copyright 2008 Melissa LaFavers