Musings of a Recovering Lutheran: Keep your law(suits) off my prayers
I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Isaiah 6:8 (KJV)

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Keep your law(suits) off my prayers

"Keep Your Laws Off My Body" is used as a rallying cry for pro-abortion forces and secular progressives. My response is: keep your hands off the body of your baby, and we will call it even.

But the secular progressives are persistent if nothing else. Recently, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry in an effort to keep him from recognizing a national day of prayer event or participating in it. However, a federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit.

Key quote from the article:

"I wonder if we had a Muslim governor what would happen if the whole state was called to a Muslim prayer," said Kay Staley, one of five Texas residents named as plaintiffs in the suit. "I think the governor needs to keep his religion out of his official duties."

Oh? First of all, attending an event like The Response (Aug. 6 at Houston's Reliant Stadium) is not a mixing of religion and state, much as Ms. Staley would like to pretend otherwise. Like other Americans, Governor Perry has First Amendment rights - and that includes the right to freedom of worship. If we took Ms. Staley's views seriously, then anytime an elected official attended church - or (Darwin forbid!) prayed silently - he or she would be guilty of trying to establish a Christianist theocracy. Does Ms. Staley really want to go down that road?

Finally, Ms. Staley's statement sounds rather ... Islamophobic. Talk about Christians being intolerant of other religious faiths! If religious pluralism is so offensive to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, they should consider moving to a country more receptive to their seek-and-destroy attitude towards religious faith - like North Korea, perhaps.

The struggle against Christophobia continues....

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