Thursday, January 22, 2004
This is a letter to the editor (letterstotheeditor@thecourier.com) that I just sent out tonight.
==============
The Findlay City Council has just decided that they will open their
meetings with a prayer. Hallelujah! If I were a god-believer, I
might think that by careful manipulation of divine providence, the
big-guy-in-the-sky has answered every politician's greatest wish: a
holy opportunity to pander to large segments of the electorate by
pretending that their local Council dealings have anything to do with
a creator of the universe. Way to go, City Council! Political
flaunting of religiousity just might bring some of you a tiny edge in
the next election! Sure, this comes at the expense of America's great
principle of Separation of Church and State, a principle that has kept
us from turning into blood-soaked theocracies like Iran, a principle
that has kept government out of religion and given us more believers
and more religious freedom than any other industrialized nation ...
But hey, who cares about deeply held and wildly successful American
ideals when re-election is at stake?
It is so nice to know that although there are real problems facing
governments at all levels, politicians can still toss all that aside
and find time for meaningless religious grandstanding that manipulates
and insults deeply held convictions of the citizenry.
E-mail: ==============
The Findlay City Council has just decided that they will open their
meetings with a prayer. Hallelujah! If I were a god-believer, I
might think that by careful manipulation of divine providence, the
big-guy-in-the-sky has answered every politician's greatest wish: a
holy opportunity to pander to large segments of the electorate by
pretending that their local Council dealings have anything to do with
a creator of the universe. Way to go, City Council! Political
flaunting of religiousity just might bring some of you a tiny edge in
the next election! Sure, this comes at the expense of America's great
principle of Separation of Church and State, a principle that has kept
us from turning into blood-soaked theocracies like Iran, a principle
that has kept government out of religion and given us more believers
and more religious freedom than any other industrialized nation ...
But hey, who cares about deeply held and wildly successful American
ideals when re-election is at stake?
It is so nice to know that although there are real problems facing
governments at all levels, politicians can still toss all that aside
and find time for meaningless religious grandstanding that manipulates
and insults deeply held convictions of the citizenry.
