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From: sam@bu-cs.UUCP (Shelli Meyers)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: USA: a religious country?
Message-ID: <680@bu-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 12:03:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.680
Posted: Wed Sep 25 12:03:50 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 06:21:28 EDT
References: <1072@ulysses.UUCP> <607@hou2g.UUCP> <11384@rochester.UUCP> <314@rruxo.UUCP> <11464@rochester.UUCP> <1780@psuvax1.UUCP>
Reply-To: sam@bu-cs.UUCP (Shelli Meyers)
Organization: Boston Univ Comp. Sci.
Lines: 45
Xref: watmath net.politics:11238 net.religion:7804

>> Has it ever occured to any of us that this country really IS a religious/
>> christian country and should be coined as such...

>> Would it be religious tyranny for the federal government to take a stand on
>> religious issues?  Has religious tyranny existed in this country? The seper-
>> ation of church and state I believe originally meant that people would have
>> the freedom to worship as they pleased without government oppression.  I
>> don't believe it meant the exclusion of government in declaring itself to be
>> of a religious faith if it thought itself as much.  
  
>There is a difference between being tolerated and having different rights.

>There is much more at stake than "upsetting some people". 

Of course our "freedom of religion" ammendment is of paramount importance.
Having "freedom of religion" should and does mean that you can be any
religion you darn well please and nobody can take away any of your civil
rights because of it.
But the government of this country *cannot* ignore that the *majority* of
people in this country are Christian.  *That* is the key....Christians are
the majority, and therefore the government must cater to their needs...
Some of the separation of church and state fanatics that I know insist
that separation means that the government must ignore the existance of
and operate without acknowledging religion.  However, think what it would
be like if Christmas was NOT a national holiday!  We'd have a big problem,
because a lot of people would be pretty pissed.  
And for those atheists who get pissed at the word God being on our money,
in our pledge of allegiance, etc, REAL atheists don't even care about God
or the lack thereof and therefore should just laugh at it (?).
AND...yes, unfortunately various and assorted Jews, Buddhists, Moslems,
and Hindus may not appreciate Christmas being a national holiday...but
in ISRAEL you can bet Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are national holidays...
I've heard it argued: "But Israel is a Jewish state."  
But if it wasn't, and the majority of people there were still Jews, R.H.
and Y.K. would STILL be national holidays.
You have to try to please MOST of the people MOST of the time.


-- 
"A rose...is a rose...is a rose."
*******************************************
Shelli Meyers
UUCP: ...!harvard!bu-cs!sam
ARPA: sam%bu-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
*******************************************


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