American Taliban???

New Rule #25: Stop whining about religious freedom, when what you really want is the opportunity to practice religious oppression.

          Well, kids, it's Thursday again, which means that it is editorial column day in the local Villages' "news"paper. Right wing sycophants  Thomas Sowell and Mona Charen  attack Presidential policy and all things liberal per their usual political bent, but one columnist, Kathryn Lopez reaches  new heights of misdirection and outright falsehood in a column entitled "Warren, God and the freedom to choose." She quotes  Rick Warren, another of those mega church pastors whose cult of personality influences his congregation to react to stimuli the way shoals of fish and flocks of birds all seem to  turn at the same time. "Can we really talk about the state of our union without talking about the state of our religious freedom?" Warren responded that religious freedom "(it) is the freedom to practice my faith and values and the freedom to convert"  She then writes, "He cautions against the misreading of tolerance - mistakenly taking all ideas to be of equal value an d dismissing the existence of truth." Of course, the "truth" she refers to is far from that absolute. It is her perception and belief (note the word belief) about the nature of God, the universe, morality, etc. Ms. Lopez certainly is aware that more people in the world have other "truths" that those who believe as she does. In dismissing other tenets, credos and beliefs  as being of lesser value, she is diametrically opposed to Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and others who had the foresight to endorse the intent and meaning of the First Amendment. Washington in his letter to the Hebrew  Congregation in Newport so eloquently wrote "the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support."  Ms Lopez, a Catholic, has clearly decided that her "truth" is exclusive. As to Mr. Warren's "freedom to convert" line, I would posit that those of us who disagree with his personal "truth" should be allowed to be free from his conversion  efforts.

          I am personally sick of the claims from the far right that religious freedom in America is abridged by current law,  when in fact current legislative efforts protect freedom from the religiously driven  prejudicial acts of the true believers among us. This is manifested, when, for example, a pharmacist refuses to fill a prescription for the "morning after" pill, citing personal beliefs as the reason. The logic involved is ludicrous. His religious freedom is the freedom to oppose abortion in his personal realm -  family, church, whatever. When , in the name of "truth" that belief infringes on another's life, that isn't religious freedom, it's religious oppression. The only difference between the pharmacist and a Talibani believer who murders schoolgirls is in degree, not principal.

          The same is true of those who scream foul because their organization might be forced, under new health care legislation to provide medical care to employees which is inconsistent with their (the organization's) personal beliefs. The rights in question here are those of  the person who has been prescribed (insert whatever drug here) which runs counter to someone else's belief. The ridiculous principle now becomes  that,  even though the Doctor has prescribed and the patient needs, someone else gets to interpose their personal belief and say no. The lameness of this argument is evident when listening to Catholics who are unable to articulate any real statement in opposition except that the Church opposes birth control. So what? So don't use birth control in your personal life. In like manner, don't keep it from a non-Catholic employee.

          It's really as simple as that. Those who would impose their beliefs on others, feel justified in doing so because theirs is the "real and only" truth. All others are lesser persons until converted. I reiterate, in far too many instances the only difference between aggressive evangelicals and the Taliban is headwear and the language they speak.