Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Oh, and one other thing
It often confuses me when people like Bill O'Reilly rail against the so-called secularization of America. Did I wake up in a country that has evolved from being a theocracy to one that isn't now? Church and state are separate. I'm not going to get into the issue of whether God should be entirely divorced from the public sector. It's not worth it, and I have to give lecture in an hour. What a secularist like myself takes issue with is the notion that personal beliefs (and not just those found in faith) should allow people to ignore the strictures of civics and the law.
If this is just a matter of the fact that public interaction is forcing organizations like Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army to have to decide between their duty to God and what has been made legally required of them as a result of said public interaction, then they always have one recourse. Get out of public interaction. Don't put yourself in the position of having to choose between God's law and man's law. Remove yourselves from the sphere that requires you to compromise your beliefs of faith with the beliefs of others that pertain to civic and civil-righteous duty.
Problem solved.
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It often confuses me when people like Bill O'Reilly rail against the so-called secularization of America. Did I wake up in a country that has evolved from being a theocracy to one that isn't now? Church and state are separate. I'm not going to get into the issue of whether God should be entirely divorced from the public sector. It's not worth it, and I have to give lecture in an hour. What a secularist like myself takes issue with is the notion that personal beliefs (and not just those found in faith) should allow people to ignore the strictures of civics and the law.
If this is just a matter of the fact that public interaction is forcing organizations like Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army to have to decide between their duty to God and what has been made legally required of them as a result of said public interaction, then they always have one recourse. Get out of public interaction. Don't put yourself in the position of having to choose between God's law and man's law. Remove yourselves from the sphere that requires you to compromise your beliefs of faith with the beliefs of others that pertain to civic and civil-righteous duty.
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell.Now sure, even the Devil can quote scripture for his own benefit. But if Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army are so imperiled by following the law, then they need to get out of the business that they're in. Let California and New York City struggle with the humanitarian problems that ensue...heck, they might all end up surprised at how fast the law changes.
The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, Chapter 5, Verses 29 and 30.
Problem solved.
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