Duane,
Thanks for your well-written response. I do understand your concerns about
separation of church and state. I would love to carry on the discussion but
I am starting to receive subtle and not-so-subtle hints to cease my
political discussions and I don't want to be abusing the forum here so I'll
just make a few comments. The fact that you indicate that you live between
Georgia and South Carolina puts a different slant on issues to probably both
of us. I mostly see an entirely different perspective from where I live in
California. From my vantage point geographically and politically I view the
far religious right as a relatively small minority in the U.S., and because
of that, do not view them as a true threat to the way the country is run
overall. I also bristle when any and all Republicans are thrown into the
same lot as them. Believe me, I've had personal experiences of bigotry
against me by certain religious fundamentalists all through my life as a
Catholic of Irish ethnic background, so I'm very much aware of of their
sometimes scary and narrow-minded beliefs. On the other hand, we do have
freedom of religion in the U.S., one of the primary basic rights, and so I
defend their rights to their beliefs. Should their beliefs control the
business of government? Of course not. Are they entitled to participate in
political process? Why not? We let the Communist, Socialist and other
small obscure parties have a spot on our ballots. I'm trying to keep this
short but did want to clarify that in no way was I trying to imply that you
are a religious bigot! My previous statements were only meant to be
rhetorical discussion asking a general question of whether we sometimes rant
so much against those religions who don't agree with a certain political
agenda, that we risk "throwing the baby out with the bathwater", to make a
bad pun. From my observation it seems that too often the arugment jumps
quickly from a discussion of "individual far right religious
fundamentalists" to "all Republicans are far right religious
fundamentalists" to "all those who have a religious belief live in a fantasy
world and are dangerous people" to "let's fight all people who have a
religious belief." When that kind of rhetoric starts getting way out there
and almost militant, I start getting a little scared myself. I start to have
pictures in my head of all Christians losing any political representation or
being rounded up for "re-education camps" or worse. That's what I meant
when I said I trust you could understand why.
Kakki
