As some posters have already relayed to you, if this ticket doesn’t deliver the conservative evangelical vote it is hard to imagine what would.<\/p>\n
You are certainly accurately describing her “Christian Heritage Week” resolution as a “real controversy”. As you know, I don’t believe it is up to the government at any level to tell people of any faith what week or day they should feel particularly religious. That’s why we have religious leaders who will presumably tell believers to honor their heritage and worship every day of every week. There is absolutely no good (that is, non-pandering reason) to make these governmental salutes to religion.<\/p>\n
Alaska’s “Christian Heritage Week” just happens to be a particularly offensive version of so-called “civil religion”. Here are just a few of its problems:<\/p>\n
* Jefferson and Madison are quoted completely out of context here–both would be appalled at this idea and, in fact, Jefferson routinely refused to sign “day of prayer” proclamations sent to him by Congress;<\/p>\n
*Patrick Henry may have been happy to comment on “sin”; but luckily for America his view of the role of religion in the nation was not that held by the majority of the Framers. In this country the government tries to stop “crimes”; it leaves the correction of “sinning” to the conscience of the people;<\/p>\n
*Most significantly, this proclamation seeks “to encourage all citizens to celebrate this week”. Alaska has a very diverse religious population, including many folks who adhere to traditional native religions. To suggest that even non-Christians celebrate this historically befuddled “Christian week” is hubris of the highest order. As the legendary Texas writer and musician Kinky Friedman observes: “Do you know how Native Americans pray on Thanksgiving? They say ‘Thanks for nothing’.” I know that is harsh, but I’m sure you get his drift.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As some posters have already relayed to you, if this ticket doesn’t deliver the conservative evangelical vote it is hard to imagine what would. You are certainly accurately describing her “Christian Heritage Week” resolution as a “real controversy”. As you know, I don’t believe it is up to the government at any level to tell…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-freedom","category-separation-of-church-and-state"],"yoast_head":"\n