If he had no religious affiliations, then there would be no debate--at least about what religion he is. Of course, it will be a long time before Americans are ready to accept an agnostic or atheist.
Although the First Amendment of the US Constitution does not specifically spell out the separation of church and state, it is implied:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
I'm not worried about the government meshing religion and government. What really concerns me, however, is the push of the right wing (mostly well-to-do Caucasian Republicans) to tie together our government and religious beliefs.
I believe much of the ranting about Obama's religion has nothing at all to do with religion but, rather is a deep-seated, invisible fear and hatred. For some people, it boils down to them versus us. Those who protest that he is a Muslim see anyone different as a threat.
Consider the Latino immigrants. There is fear among some people that not only will they take away jobs (the ones no one else wants) but that the demographics of our population will eventually change so that Caucasians will be in the minority. That probably will happen.
But so what? So what if I'm in the minority?
We're all Americans who have hopes and dreams for ourselves, our families and our country. This group is a "we," not an "us" and "them." We are the people...together.
◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊
You might want to check out the following links:
Roger Ebert's Journal in the Chicago Sun-Times
Ten things I know about the mosque
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/08/ten_things_i_know_about_the_mo.html
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post.
Bruce Feiler's commentary on Fox News
Snopes
Government Archives
No comments:
Post a Comment
This space for your comments: