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Commentary Too - Nov 13, 2005 - Printable Version
- Swallowing God
by Mike Bohling
The Kansas State Board of Education’s recent vote to challenge Darwin’s theory and insert Intelligent Design into it’s science and biology classrooms can only be described as a monumental step backward for the students of the Sunflower State. No longer limited to the discipline of a body of laws and principles, educators in Kansas are now required to include supernatural solutions to the great questions of our time in their teachings. The insanity in Kansas is just the latest of many instances where the government is allowing religion to be forced into our lives. Just two weeks ago, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination as a Supreme Court Justice. In attempting to sell Harriet’s credentials to the Religious Right President Bush, said, "People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers, they want to know Harriet Miers' background ... And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."
Since Bush’s declaration of Harriet Miers religious beliefs was about the only information that the White House made public about her, I have to assume that Harriet’s religious beliefs, her Christianity, satisfied the President’s litmus test for potential Supreme Court nominees. I think I once read somewhere that * “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States”, but since she didn’t actually have to take a written exam or anything, I guess this doesn’t count.
Unfortunately for Harriet, Dubya’s word wasn’t good enough to convince his supporters on the Religious Right. Nope, she wasn’t the type of evangelical jurist that they had in mind. Harriet simply didn’t have a strong enough history of forcing her beliefs on the masses to be embraced by Bush’s most radical supporters. Samuel Alito on the other hand… Well, now the crusaders have something to wag their tails about.
The ironic part is that these same extremists sponsored a nationwide telecast several months ago called “Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster against People of Faith”. The focus of the program was to force an up or down senate vote on all of the president’s judicial nominees. That charade must have only been meant for the nominees that meet their narrow ideals, because Harriet Miers never even got her shot at senate confirmation hearings, much less an up or down vote.
The power displayed by religious conservatives in choosing a replacement for Sandra Day O’Connor should be disturbing to every U.S. citizen. These people effectively overturned a judicial nomination made by the President of the United States without the inconveniences of public discourse or hearings. It is the kind of power that scares the bejeebers out of me. If a small group of religious extremists are permitted to select the jurists who uphold constitutional law, nationalized religious law will not be far behind.
Over the past several years more and more skirmishes over the separation of Church and State have been bubbling to the surface in American politics. Many of them appear to be petty, and not important enough to raise suspicion of the coming war that is brewing behind the scenes. Personally, I don’t worry much about “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, or “In God We Trust” on our currency. Those are the little things that really don’t effect any of us in our day to day lives. Recent events however, have the potential to change everything that I hold dear about being a citizen of the United States of America.
Inserting religion into the biology classrooms of America can only blur the distinction between known science and wishful belief. If I’m laying on an operating table thirty years from now, I want to be certain that the procedure my surgeon is about to perform on me is based on his knowledge of scientific fact, not what he learned in his Kansas issued biology textbook in 2005. I’m funny that way.
As displeasing as it seems, stacking the Supreme Court with extremist judges who will inflict their religious views onto our constitutional rights is now only a few senate votes from becoming a reality. To many Americans, I may appear to be the extremist in my views about the coming union of Church and State, but you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t like the idea the government spoon feeding me religious doctrines that are not my own through constitutional law. That spoon is a little too big for me to swallow.
*Article VI of the United States Constitution
Editor's note: I'm going to excercise a little editorial license here, and add this quote from Ken Shade's "Quote of the Day" (Nov. 8th) as an addendum to Mike's article. Sometimes we complement each other without even knowing it.
"It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics."
Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.faulkingtruth.com/KensQuote/
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