The First Amendment protects free speech and is supposed to keep the government out of the religion business. Both provisions are under attack, sometimes quietly, hidden within terrorism-driven laws such as the "Patriot Act," and sometimes in a blatantly unabashedly in your face manner. In this post, I'm only addressing the religion part.
Following are some excerpts from a recent conversation on another social media platform, with names redacted and my comments in italics inserted:
Minnesota Liquor stores fight to keep MN dry on Sunday's! The only way we are going to get away from this tyranny of lazy moralizing, is if we buy our booze in Wisconsin every day of the week. The legislators have been debating this for hours, and years. The conclusion is that Sunday is gods day...
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I don't even drink and I can get behind this!
Yeah, me too neither. ;^)
But lazy moralizing and alcohol go so well together! Have the years spent playing...bars taught you nothing...???
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It is [archaic] laws called blue laws.They're still all over the U.S..They are religiously based on doing business on Sunday and going to church.Not that long ago;and probibly in some towns and counties still exist;that no business could be open on Sunday. Did you know that there are over 500 different laws pertaining to when ,where and how to have a drink in the good old USA?
Come to think of it, the discrimination is not even between Christians and non-Christians. After all, Christianity grew out of Judaism which practices 'Shabat' on Saturday.
What's more, not all Christians made the switch from Sat. to Sun. There are still many Christians who view Saturday or '7th Day' as they call it, as the proper day to commemorate God's Day of Rest after He labored 6 days to create the Earth and whatnot. Those who disagree, preferring '1st Day worship' (Sunday) apparently think their way of worshiping is the right way, all others be damned!
Not to mention, the Muslim Holy Day is Friday.
This is an example of
- why the "wall of separation between govt & religion", as Thomas Jefferson put it, was written into the Bill of Rights.
- how that "wall" has been broken down.
Let's look at the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, and of "In God We Trust" to our currency.
The Pledge was modified during my parents' lifetime.
The Motto has a long history.
During the Civil War, coins (but not paper currency) were minted with the new 'God' motto in place of the original e pluribus unum. This was done in order to indicate that God was on the Union's side.
In 1956, motivated by the Cold War and our need to defeat the Godless Commies, Pres. Eisenhower made it the official National Motto. That led to it showing up on paper money the following year.
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Comments: 2
In this case when I try to think what is the "job" in question, the one that leaps to mind is the job of actor. The actor's job is to "convince" the audience they are not watching a play. In the theater, the job is actually to provide the audience with a "convincing" enough performance as to make it possible for them to maintain their suspension of disbelief. Suspension of disbelief is what the audience hopes and desires to maintain. If the fourth wall is broken, the audience feels their suspension of disbelief crumble, and may soon demand a refund of their ticket money.
But here the "actor" plays a role on a larger public stage, and does not merely offer thoughts and images to contemplate. He exhorts the audience to go forth and do his bidding thruout the world.