[MD] Tea Bagging

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Mark]
Ok, so in your opinion the house is misguided.  Certainly an 
amendment can be formulated to rectify this.

[Arlo]
I think the separation of church and state was a bitter pill to 
swallow for many people who feel it is their "right" to impose their 
religion (and lifestyle) onto others. It was great when it kept out 
"others", but when it keeps out "me" it becomes a terrible evil. As 
such, many politicians pander to this rather than use their position 
to raise the discourse above it.

For many people it seems, "freedom" only means "freedom to be like 
me". We rage when "others" views are thrust upon us, but demand that 
our views be thrust upon others. It is no small wonder, like I said 
to DMB, that the same people who are outraged that a teacher tells 
their kid be tolerant of a homosexual in the classroom saying it 
interferes with their right to raise their kid according to their 
values, are the SAME people who are demanding that creationism and 
the bible be taught in school.

Example. I am a big proponent of mythology. At a school meeting once 
years ago, in response to a comment by a parent in favor of having 
creationism taught, I suggested perhaps a study of global creation 
myths, under a literature or a mythology class, and she exploded in 
my face. How DARE I call her religion a "myth", she said, and there 
was (verbatim) "no way in hell she was going to let [her] kid be 
exposed to all those other lies".

Here was a woman who wanted to FORCE her religion onto every child in 
the school, but was downright insulted and angry that other ways of 
thinking would be forced on HER child. Over the years, I have come to 
see this as the norm in nearly every way.

So you get people like Platt who feel that burning the Koran is an 
exercise of "free speech" (despite military officials saying this 
will lead to immediate violence against our troops), but turn around 
and say that burning the flag "incites violence" and therefore should 
be restricted. Do you see, this is the exact same thing as that 
mother years ago.

I should be free to burn your meaningful objects, you should not be 
free to burn mine.

The same is true of this church and state nonsense. Those who 
advocate tearing down the wall do so with the demand that it is only 
THEIR religion that gets through the hole. You may hold a peaceful 
position where having the House led by Islamic prayers doesn't bother 
you, but do HONESTLY think this is representative of the Tea Baggers? 
These are the same people who believe Obama is a Muslim, and 
protested against a mosque being built on the far perimeter of 
"ground zero" (never mind the Muslims who worked in the towers who 
were also killed on 9/11).

What's funny to me is that the wall of separation between church and 
state that Jefferson wrote about was not to protect "atheism", but to 
protect those adhering to religion. The same people are now actively 
seeking to dismantle this, and how long do you think it will be 
before another religion creeps into the holes they make and starts 
imposing itself on them?