Yesterday when the Senator from California said it made as much sense to hold all of the Muslim Faith responsible for the Taliban as it does to hold the 700 Club responsible for the Aryan Nation, or words to that effect, the Representative of Florida Family Ass. started spouting off against the Senator infringing on religion’s constitutional rights. Before this he was justifying his groups right to put pressure on Lowes to withdraw their ads on the All American Muslims show while bragging about having effectively stopped Home Depot from doing the same.
Lets make something perfectly clear:In America wrong is wrong. If you are a member of the Westboro Baptist Church showing up at a trial to defend the murder’s right to kill a gay person or to protest your hate at the funerals of military war heroes, you will be listed on the hate crime list. No one in America is above the law when it comes to promoting hate or when it comes to promoting murder anymore than they are when they promote bigotry. The Aryan Nation sadly is not the only radical Christian religion that has killed and promotes White Supremacy or hate. No one religion has a Constitutional right to be protected against the truth when they promote and break the law against separation of Church and State.
What the Constitution does say is that Religion cannot promote one political candidate over another and that Churches clearly cannot enter into the political arena. Because some Churches set up other groups to promote their views, they claim not to be advising their congregations on who to vote for. Instead they use other areas such as film,videos, and documentaries that are expressly and purposely made to represent their views while telling them anything else they read or hear is a lie or they will use groups to promote the wishes of the Churches, in some cases, and other times they do preach from the pulpit the danger of risking one’s soul, if they do not vote for the Republican candidate and if they are not pro-life over a woman’s right to choose by law.
The law of separation of Church and State has flagrantly been broken and abused by Religion in the process of elections; Not to mention the transgression of their members’ civil rights. The Constitution specifically spells out that no Church can influence or otherwise act on, the way it’s members vote in the political process. What makes our Constitution so special is that it is clear that the law precedes and protects the Individual rights over all other groups or organizations.
If religion feels they are being unfairly attacked then they should do something about preventing the image and example that they themselves are establishing in America. No one gets to take advantage of the law or Constitution to strengthen their own views at an expense to others’ Constitutional rights, even if they think they can use God’s law against man’s law.
When we hear about religion being under attack it is because they are bringing it upon themselves by feeling, in most cases, they have a right and duty to speak out because God’s law is superior to man’s law, but when others report that they are breaking the law of the Constitution by interfering in elections or the civil rights of other Americans, then they scream discrimination against religious rights. To accuse Lowes of promoting terrorism and to attack the program American Muslims is very typical of these extremists who are interfering with the rights of all minorities.
If it was just a matter of speaking out for their candidates it would be bad enough, but the fact that they are given freedom from taxation and then put many millions of dollars into campaigning for their own views, it then becomes a gross over-step of the Constitution on their part.
At no time does the Constitution allow anyone group to break the law. I repeat:”No one is above the law in America” and when they show stupidity, bigotry, hate, or infringe on the rights of other American’s Constitutional rights with threats or fear tactics,it is and should be reported.
I applaud TLC for trying to bring clarity to what the Muslim Religion really is but as long as we have groups trying to teach their own brand of stupidity and hate in America, with threats, it is always going to be an uphill battle to stop this brand of propaganda and misguided mentality. Unless we do move to stop it with stronger legislation against this type of hate sadly,”It is what it is.”
The majority of, we Christians, do understand that hate does not have room in our hearts if we do call ourselves Christian and as such we deplore and work towards stopping the hate and bigotry that we do acknowledge exists in America, even if it is only one person at a time. The “skirt will win out over the pants”, or if you prefer “the brooms over the bats”,or since we have room to include both genders we can also say,” the real over the hypocrites”, as we work towards disenfranchising the hateful amongst us. When those who hate learn acceptance of the diversity in America and the value it brings to our Democracy then we will all begin living the Democracy all Americans have a right to live.
Re-elect OBama who has worked tirelessly for Democracy and the American middleclass, even though it has not always been popular with those who would defeat him, in 2012.
