Tag Archives: freedom of religion

The Right to be Wrong

My recent post questioning unwavering support for the State of Israel generated a lot of discussion, much of which was off topic, involving religious tolerance, confessional governments, and whether or not anyone has a natural right to be wrong. Being off topic doesn’t make the discussion irrelevant or uninteresting, though. So, in order to “purify” the original comment thread and continue the other conversations, I’ve moved the distracting comments here.

The tangential conversation began when the Waffling Anglican said,

“Christianity demands, IMHO, religious tolerance, respect for justice, liberty, and human dignity. Modern or not, I think a very strong case can be made that those values are products of Christianity, and intrinsic to the practice of true religion.”

Crimethink?

A couple weeks ago I heard about 11 Christians who were arrested while peacefully
protesting Outfest in Philadelphia. I waited for a few MSM outlets to report it,
but they didn’t. Here are two WorldNetDaily articles about it. I wish I had some
less obviously conservative sources. Any suggestions?

11 Christians arrested at homosexual event
Demonstrators spend 21 hours in jail, charged with felonies

Homosexuals planned Christian harassment
‘OutFest’ organizers announced efforts to block protesters now facing prison

More about crimethink:

Criminalized thoughts?
By Amy Doolittle, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Jokes about political correctness have been around for more than a decade, and many Americans now take for granted conflicts over manger scenes on public property and Christmas carols in public schools. Hostility toward religious expression is no joke, however, to advocates concerned that “hate crimes” laws could be used to rob Americans of religious freedom, which they say is already the case in some parts of Europe.

An Atheist Christmas Special

Theomorph presents an interesting view on sacred versus profane Christmas debates. Unlike a lot of secularists, he’s not hostile toward religious expression. Perhaps it’s because he was once Christian. Then again, maybe he’s just a nice guy. 😉

On a somewhat related note, here’s an article about the growing popularity of Festivus.

Neutering Christmas

” The attempts to de-Christianize Christmas are as absurd as they are relentless. The United States today is the most tolerant and diverse society in history. It celebrates all faiths with an open heart and open-mindedness that, compared to even the most advanced countries in Europe, are unique.”

“Yet more than 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and probably 95 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is an official federal holiday, the only day of the entire year when, for example, the Smithsonian museums are closed. Are we to pretend that Christmas is nothing but an orgy of commerce in celebration of . . . what? The winter solstice? ” – Charles Krauthammer, “Just Leave Christmas Alone

(Thanks, Dappled Things)

Politics From the Pulpit

There are great discussions going on in the comments to these posts, both of which
touch on faith in public life. I encourage those who haven’t done already to hop
in. 🙂

Merry
Christmas, ACLU

Still
Hope

I’d like to thank all those who’ve been participating. I don’t usually get such
lively debate in my comments. I really think a blog without comments is only half
a blog, so I really appreciate the exchange of thoughts going on. That said, I now
encourage those who enjoy the chatter about the first post to head over to The
Smedley Log, where H2 has expanded his thoughts from the comments
. He deserves
a traffic spike, too, so spread the love. 😉

Theomorph
also has a post related to this topic
, though he was inspired by an essay by
David Brin, not this blog.