Church and state

I was away for the Thanksgiving holiday, so it was this weekend that I got caught up with reading back issues of The Nugget. I couldn’t help but compare the open and broad-minded editorial by Julia Fugate (November 20) and the illiberal sentiment of William David (December 4) referring to a piece by Lisa May.

The First Amendment to the Constitution protects free speech in this country.Regardless of what you may think of Lisa’s beliefs, she has every right to have them published in a town newspaper like this. It would put Jim Cornelius in a horrible position to try to decide who to cancel. And it would be un-American.

As for Lisa May, she refers to the Bible as one monolithic thing whereas it’s clearly up to interpretation as there are at least two major religions and a plethora of Christian denominations that all have different interpretations about some or all of what’s in the Bible.The Jews, Catholics, and Protestants each have their own version. And I know people “of the Bible” who are on both sides of many political issues including the one she writes about.So exactly how Lisa May thinks the Bible supports her position, she could have said more.

Both secular law and the Bible have prescriptions against murder. What the politics of abortion is about is what we as a society should consider murder. When the civil war was fought, both sides claimed God was on their side (See Joan Baez “With God on Our Side.”) I just hope this issue won’t lead to violence.

Finally, I want to return to separation of church and state and what a remarkable innovation it was in the late 1700s. It’s an idea that is worth protecting regardless of your point of view. You may be interested in a PBS documentary I recently watched called “God in America,” a joint product of Frontline and American Experience.

According to that documentary, Thomas Jefferson got involved to protect the Baptists who were being imprisoned by the state- sponsored Anglican Church. Catholic immigrants, led by New York Archbishop John Hughes, challenged Protestant domination of public schools and protested the daily classroom practice of reading from the King James Bible. This issue has come up again and again throughout this country’s history. And it’s being tested again in Oklahoma.

We only have to look around the world to see what happens when such protection isn’t in place. I was in a part of India in February, where the Hindu nationalists threaten to jail Catholics and other Christian denominations if they try to convert anyone.Would you like to live under the rule of the Taliban or the regime in Iran? I doubt it. Religion can have powerful influence to do both bad and good, hopefully a country where we keep it out of government is the best way to tame it to some extent.