| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Olrik" |
| Date: |
29 Jul 2003 12:15:45 AM |
| Object: |
Excellent article from The Washington Post |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59689-2003Jul28.html
---
Bad Faith Advertising
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, July 29, 2003; Page A17
When Lance Armstrong took a spill during the Tour de France, the
cyclists chasing him slowed until he could right himself and resume the
race. Lucky for him his competitors were not conservative Republicans.
They would have run right up his back.
For an example of how these conservatives play the game, it is probably
best to live in Maine or Rhode Island. In those states, an organization
called the Committee for Justice has been running newspaper ads accusing
Senate Democrats of using a religion test for judicial nominations. The
nominee in question is William H. Pryor Jr. of Alabama. The ad says that
if Pryor were not a strict Catholic, the Democrats would have no problem
with him.
The newspaper ads show a picture of a door labeled "Judicial Chambers."
A sign says "Catholics Need Not Apply." The ad goes on to say that Pryor
is being opposed because of his "deeply held" Catholic beliefs, omitting
the awkward fact that some of the Democrats who oppose him are also
Catholic. The ad -- not to put too fine a point on it -- is a lie.
What's more, it's an insult to Catholics. It employs a historically
redolent phrase, once so familiar to New England's Irish Americans, to
sidestep the real problem with Pryor's nomination to a federal appeals
court -- not his "deeply held" religious convictions but his deeply held
determination to impose them on others. The ad's sponsors deeply hope
that Catholics react viscerally. I pray that they don't.
Pryor's record is unequivocal. As Alabama's attorney general, he not
only made statements deploring Supreme Court decisions upholding the
separation of church and state -- "it seems our government has lost God"
-- but repeatedly expressed his conviction that the God he had in mind
was the Christian one. "The challenge of the next millennium will be to
preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian
perspective," he said in 1997.
On another occasion -- his investiture as Alabama's attorney general --
he concluded his remarks by saying, "With trust in God, and his Son,
Jesus Christ, we will continue the American experiment of liberty and law."
Although a state official, Pryor chose to intervene in federal court
cases on the side of Roy Moore, now the state's chief justice. As a
trial judge, Moore opened court with a prayer delivered by a Christian
clergyman. He displayed the Ten Commandments in his courtroom and later,
when elected the state's chief judge, had a monster statue of the Ten
Commandments placed before the courthouse. Higher courts told him to
remove it.
Whatever Pryor's religious convictions, they are no business of the
Senate. But they are its business when he seeks to impose those beliefs
on others -- as he has repeatedly tried to do. This is what the
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee object to. Yet the ads, sponsored
by a committee led by C. Boyden Gray, the first President Bush's White
House counsel, simply label Pryor's opponents as religious bigots. Gray
lent his name to this cause, and so did former president George H.W.
Bush, who lent his house for a fundraiser. This is a GOP operation, pure
and simple.
Gray ought to be ashamed. Instead of battling religious prejudice, he is
using the fear of it to stack the courts with conservative Republicans.
At the same time, he has allied himself with those who traffic in their
own kind of religious bigotry -- a smug disdain for the beliefs of
others, including dissenting Christians, non-Christians and people who
have no religion at all. Pryor clearly feels his religion is the better
religion -- the one the state should support, the one with which to open
a court session or to proclaim in stone on the courthouse steps.
This is dangerous stuff. We are a pluralistic society. I happen to think
some religions are just plain weird. I also happen to think that Pryor
cannot for a second explain through reason -- reason, not faith -- why
his convictions are better, truer or closer to God's than mine. Such
matters cannot be debated. Historically, they have been settled at
sword's point. If you believe that a cow is sacred, I cannot argue with
you. The same holds for the virgin birth or, for that matter, the
burning bush. You believe what you believe. It is that simple.
Gray and by extension former president Bush ought to repudiate the ad.
At its core, it is a demagogic lie. As for Pryor, by statements and
actions, he has disqualified himself for the federal bench. I don't care
if he's a good Catholic. I do care that he'd make a bad judge.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
---
--
Olrik
aa #1981
Qualified SMASH member
EAC Chief Food Inspector, Bacon Division
.
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| User: "Al Klein" |
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| Title: Re: Excellent article from The Washington Post |
29 Jul 2003 10:27:09 PM |
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On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 01:15:45 -0400, Olrik <olrik666@yahoo_BACON!_.com>
posted in alt.atheism:
Pryor's record is unequivocal. As Alabama's attorney general, he not
only made statements deploring Supreme Court decisions upholding the
separation of church and state -- "it seems our government has lost God"
-- but repeatedly expressed his conviction that the God he had in mind
was the Christian one. "The challenge of the next millennium will be to
preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian
perspective," he said in 1997.
The challenge of the current millennium - at least the challenge of
the end of it - will be remembering what the phrase "the United
States" once referred to.
--
"I am a deeply religious nonbeliever.... This is a somewhat new kind of religion."
- Letter to Hans Muehsam March 30, 1954; Einstein Archive 38-434
rukbat at optonline dot net
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