FEBRUARY 2009

 

 

 

Thank you Barack Obama for your leadership!

 

Exactly forty years ago this nation lost a great leader, a man of vision and hope, a man who dared to believe in a world where a person is judged by the content of his character and not the color of his skin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

Four years ago America was introduced to a man who had the audacity to say "We are not red states, we are not blue states, we are the United States of America". Those words sent chills up my spine as I and many Americans had grown so weary of bitter political divisions in this country.

 

Our country suffered a horrible trauma on September 11, 2001 and for a brief moment we forgot our divisions and were all united as Americans. The French said "Today we are ...

 

It's bad enough when a member of the highest court in the land, Antonin Scalia, takes a repulsive attutude toward his critics in front of a church (using a vulgar finger gesture), indicating his self-righteous arrogance, but this man who plays a critical role in impartially reviewing cases of constitutional law continues to publicly display his bias.

 

Mr. Scalia was scathing in his minority opinion of the 2003 Lawrence v. Texasdecision that ensured the privacy rights ofall Americans in their sexual lives. So it should not be a surprising that he continues to hold a strong bias against gay people as demonstrated in a recent discussion at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland.

 

 

Even as I have moved, personally, from fundamentalist Christian to agnostic, I strongly support freedom of religion. We have a Constitutional guarantee of such in the United States, but this right is not universal across the world.

 

Prior to 9/11, my life partner was very open and tolerant to people from all walks of life, including people of all faiths including Islam. That changed after 9/11. My very socially liberal partner has a real difficulty being fair minded toward Muslim people and is predisposed to hate and despise all Muslim people.

 

I personally have not changed my attitude toward people of any faith, including Islam. And I have had some very heated arguments with my partner about the unfairness of his "broad brush" attitude of Muslims, condemning all Muslims because of the actions and words of extremist Muslims. ...

 

A resolution made it out of committee in the Missouri state legislature "that supports prayer in schools and recognizes a 'Christian God'". The article in STLtoday.com discussing this resolution goes on to discuss some familiar myths:"The proposed resolution states that the country's forefathers 'recognized a Christian God and used the principles afforded to us by Him as the founding principles of our nation. ... As elected officials we should protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs while showing respect for those who object.'".

 

Myth #1 - That our forefathers "recognized a Christian God".

Myth #2 - That Christians religious rights in this country are in dangered

Myth #3 - And last but not least, that these extremist Christians want to "[show] respect for those who object."

 

These Christian extremists either ignorantly believe their own myths or ...