Here in the USA - the best country in the world! - I can be an atheist with ease. I can laugh at Christians who think God is loving and just even after witnessing all the misery and suffering that goes on in most parts of the world. I can laugh at Jews who aren't allowed to leave their homes on Saturdays unless they put little signs up over a wide area, symbolically saying "this is part of our home" so they can go to stores on Saturdays. (I used to know the name of it, but it's not coming to me today.) I can't really laugh at Islam with the way it treats women, but at least I can express that dislike without fear.
But imagine yourself in any country that is not secular but actually ruled by religious folks - that'd be those countries in the Middle East, where an incoming governor wouldn't have to call people to Allah, because they all would be that religion under pain of living as a despised minority.
That's what Christians are in Muslim countries - for example Christians in Egypt regularly go in fear of their lives. And I don't think you can be an atheist in religiously-ruled countries, either.
(Yeah, it's funny that Muslims in the US complain about ill-treatment, when they are treated 1,000 times better than Christians in Muslim countries.)
Anyway, that's why religion and politics don't mix. Memorialize our fallen soldiers with huge crosses prominently displayed, by all means. More power to you. I will bow my head in my own form of appreciation at that spot. But don't stand up in your governmental pulpit and call me to Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment