Happy Fourth of July!

"Coexistence with religious fanatics isn't possible."

So says Christopher Hitchens (author of God Is Not Great) in a great Pajamas Media interview titled "Citizen Hitchens Celebrates July 4th."

Hitchens, a new U.S. citizen, is quite taken with Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (which Jefferson saw as one of his three principal accomplishments in life), and I can certainly understand why. I see it as a sort of detailed annotation of the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment -- especially the oft-disputed "establishment of religion" part.

Excerpt:

Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporary rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry...
I think of the meaning of the Establishment Clause every time I see a taxpayer funded school bus transporting children to my local Saudi madrassa. It's bad enough that there are people who brainwash children into becoming religious fanatics dedicated to the downfall of freedom, but to know that I am being forced to pay for it -- that hurts.

I blame the combined forces of left-wing identity politics, and to be fair, some blame must go to the right. For there are a number of conservatives who think it's just fine to spend tax dollars busing children to Saudi madrassas. (In the name of "religious freedom" of course. What they forget is that sauce for the Christian goose is also sauce for the Saudi gander.)

But I complain a lot. My complaints are minor details in the larger context of freedom.

I'll close with another picture of a bald eagle I took in Alaska last week.

eagle4th.jpg Quite coincidentally, this amazing raptor was taken off the endangered species list while I was in Alaska taking my pictures. Noting the remarkable comeback these great symbols of freedom have made, the Chicago Tribune concluded with a warning:

Having dodged obliteration by a host of modern perils, these winged emblems of independence will never again be able to survive without an assist from mankind. As long as there are chemicals and tall towers and waterfront resorts, the eagle will be threatened in ways that the legal constructs of federal law can't fully anticipate.

So as we celebrate this 4th of July, let's appreciate a national symbol once given up for gone. Appreciate, and commit ourselves to protect.

That proudly soaring bird is a symbol of our freedom. It's nice -- even inspiring -- to know that this symbol could be resurrected to the point that is no longer endangered.

I don't mean to belabor the point, but today is the Fourth of July, and I have to say I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I thought the freedom the eagle symbolizes could be restored as easily.

So enjoy the Fourth!

(But don't take its meaning for granted.)




posted by Eric on 07.04.07 at 11:01 AM





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Comments

great post, Eric, and happy Fourth!

We went camping in Yellowstone in August of 1999 and I was thrilled when we saw a bald eagle in the treetops near a river.

Got a couple of shots of it, but not quite as spectactular as yours.

re: education... my position is that parents of children k-12 should have the same rights as post 12th grade education when it comes to choice. We don't deny college students who choose Notre Dame grants and/or loans.

Darleen   ·  July 4, 2007 01:06 PM

One prob I see with the system is that it basically clumps every philosophy that invoked the supernatural as 'religion'.

Ergo, in the eyes of the law (and skeptics, polemicals and critics) there is no real difference between indoctrinating believers in 'Love your neighbour and your enemy too', 'Kill or enslave the unbelievers', and 'Free the Thetan within you'.

Similarly, just becase uneducated career warriors who had never read a word of an actual Bible were riled up to conquer the Holy Land by a medieval Catholic Pope who held great political power, therefore modern Christians also subscribe to violence and intolerance of diversity.

Just MHO, the notion of separation of church and state that the free world prides itself on has not been sucessfully introduced to madrassas in the West. The government is thus basically sponsoring programmes that favour foreign nations over its own.

Scott   ·  July 5, 2007 12:05 AM

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