Saturday, November 26, 2005
Standards
''We have to set a standard that it's not culturally acceptable to mock Christianity in America,'' says Kansas State Sen. Karin Brownlee, a Republican from Olathe in Johnson County.
Brownlee was responding to a message posted on a Yahoo listserv by religious studies professor Paul Mirecki, who announced the other day that he will teach a course at the University of Kansas titled ''Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationisms and other Religious Mythologies.
''The fundies want it all taught in a science class," wrote Mirecki, "but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious studies class under the category mythology.''
Red State Rabble thinks Mirecki's Yahoo post, while perhaps a bit intemperate, is perfectly acceptable in a political debate -- and that is exactly what Christian fundamentalists like Sen. Brownlee have let themselves in for by injecting their own particular brand of Christianity into politics.
Sen. Brownlee, like so many other fundamentalists of her ilk, believes that when Mirecki mocks "fundies" he's mocking all Christians, but that, of course, is false. Her holier-than-thou attitude -- that only those who believe as Sen. Brownlee does qualify as real Christians -- cries out to be mocked.
As a friend of ours would say, "Who died and made her god?"
If fundamentalists enter the political arena wearing their religion on their sleeves, they must expect opposition. The fact is, some of us -- many of us -- don't want to be forced to go to their church or worship at the altar of their god. We especially don't want our children indoctrinated in their primitive religious beliefs in a science classroom.
We have our own beliefs. We think they are just as good as her's, thank you very much.
As ludicrous as it is dangerous is the idea, advanced by Sen. Brownlee, that you can no longer criticize politicians who want to enforce their religious beliefs on the rest of us by writing them into the law. How will Sen. Brownlee set her standard that it's not culturally acceptable to mock Christianity in America? By passing a law? By making it illegal?
If fundamentalists such as Sen Brownlee are too sensitive to have their religious beliefs subjected to the rough and tumble of political debate, they should leave them at home or in the church they attend.
Brownlee was responding to a message posted on a Yahoo listserv by religious studies professor Paul Mirecki, who announced the other day that he will teach a course at the University of Kansas titled ''Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationisms and other Religious Mythologies.
''The fundies want it all taught in a science class," wrote Mirecki, "but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious studies class under the category mythology.''
Red State Rabble thinks Mirecki's Yahoo post, while perhaps a bit intemperate, is perfectly acceptable in a political debate -- and that is exactly what Christian fundamentalists like Sen. Brownlee have let themselves in for by injecting their own particular brand of Christianity into politics.
Sen. Brownlee, like so many other fundamentalists of her ilk, believes that when Mirecki mocks "fundies" he's mocking all Christians, but that, of course, is false. Her holier-than-thou attitude -- that only those who believe as Sen. Brownlee does qualify as real Christians -- cries out to be mocked.
As a friend of ours would say, "Who died and made her god?"
If fundamentalists enter the political arena wearing their religion on their sleeves, they must expect opposition. The fact is, some of us -- many of us -- don't want to be forced to go to their church or worship at the altar of their god. We especially don't want our children indoctrinated in their primitive religious beliefs in a science classroom.
We have our own beliefs. We think they are just as good as her's, thank you very much.
As ludicrous as it is dangerous is the idea, advanced by Sen. Brownlee, that you can no longer criticize politicians who want to enforce their religious beliefs on the rest of us by writing them into the law. How will Sen. Brownlee set her standard that it's not culturally acceptable to mock Christianity in America? By passing a law? By making it illegal?
If fundamentalists such as Sen Brownlee are too sensitive to have their religious beliefs subjected to the rough and tumble of political debate, they should leave them at home or in the church they attend.
