Clarence Oddbody: Debates over religious liberty are often juvenile, and this is one example.

Monday, January 12, 2015

Debates over religious liberty are often juvenile, and this is one example.

c0 Top: Satanic Temple's "snaketivity" in Lansing, MI, Christmas 2014. Bottom: A tradtional nativity scene also at the state capitol. Both photos from ColoradoNewsday.com

Top: Satanic Temple's "snaketivity" in Lansing, MI, Christmas 2014. Bottom: A traditional nativity scene also at the state capitol. Both photos from ColoradoNewsday.com >

If we agree to live together and respect each others' rights to worship (or not), then we also grant some measure of public expression and tolerance.

A few examples: No one, not even the most rabid libertarian, is suggesting that a church can't put a cross on its steeple, or a nativity scene in its front yard. That is some measure of public expression, and the same logic extends to the airwaves (radio and TV) and highways (bumper stickers) and public places (I can bow my head before eating lunch, if I choose).

We like to practice routines and fabricate physical things that remind us of what's meaningful. With few exceptions, we're not evangelizing, just preserving.

Removing a fixed religious statement that's been in place for a couple generations or more is no different from removing a native American totem pole, or the Ancient Pueblo peoples' road system.[1]

What's that? Those have historical value?

I see. So because the people and their superstitions are long gone, they no longer offend?

I see. That means, should enough time pass, and all Christians and their beliefs are likewise stone or dust, it would be okay to allow public display?

Then it's not the ideas at issue, or a principle, or a law, but the offense.

Some minds are so fixated on what's right for everyone (especially the extreme right and left), they will insist on equal treatment for no other reason than a brief bit if infamy and the pleasure of watching others squirm.

We all like to be the center of attention sometimes, don't we? And we like taking something from someone else just because if we take it, they won't have it.