The Baha'i Studies Listserv Dear Stephen, No one can possibly read as many links as you post. You might consider limiting yourself to a couple of key ones that are most germane to your points and posting them only when they directly relate to a point you wish to make.
Several > states have state religions, without it being theocratic or oppressive. > Several religions have political parties that have religious based platforms > ie Judaism (Israel), Christianity (Christian democracy), Islam (Islamism and > Sharia), Hinduism (Hindutva), Buddhism, Happy Science, Cheondogyo, etc. It > doesn't seem like it would be an auothiratarian regime. Is it oppresive to > have a state religion in and of itself or to legislate morality? > Having a state religion and having a state which imposes religious law, whether found in the shariah or the Old Testament are two different things. England has a state religion but it does not seek to impose Anglicanism on its subjects or rule the country in accordance with either biblical or canon law. Instead, pluralism is explicitly embraced. This is not what the Reconstructionalists propose. I would say that it most definitely would be oppressive to allow parents to declare their children obstinate and have them stoned to death as the Old Testament allows and as Gary North's father-in-law Roshdoony endorses. Decentralized governments are not necessarily any less oppressive than centralized ones. On the contrary, in our own country it has been the champions of so-called 'states rights' who have used this as an excuse to deprive people of their most basic human rights. And by the way, the Reconstructionalists also support reintroducing slavery. After all, its biblical. warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-536073-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
