A Common Sense Approach to Religious FreedomWritten by Terry Mitchell
Down through centuries and all over world, battle for religious freedom has been a bitter one. The United States has been no exception. Although most of those who founded this country came here seeking religious freedom, it has been a source of contention from beginning and remains so today. There are fanatics on both sides of this issue. On one side, we have those who think their religious freedom is being violated if they are not allowed to force their religion down everyone else's throat. One other side, we have those who believe it's their inalienable right to never be exposed to any element of religious life. Both extremes are wrong. Government should be neither hostile to any religion nor an enforcer of it. Instead, those who possess common sense should be capable of assenting to a happy medium. Contrary to popular belief, phrase, "separation of church and state", cannot be found in U.S. Constitution. That phrase is misleading anyway as many people interpret it as "protection of state from church." Most of our Founding Fathers frequently, and often publicly, expressed their faith in a Creator, so it should be obvious to anyone that they never intended to banish expressions of religious faith from public square. Any separation of church and state that they had in mind was to serve only four major functions: (1) allow people to freely practice religion of their choice (or no religion at all) without interference from state, (2) forbid any religion or denomination from being set up as "state church", (3) prevent state from having church do its bidding, and (4) protect church from being regulated and having its practices dictated to it by state. From these principles, I think we can derive a common sense approach to religious freedom. Our common sense approach should allow for verbal religious expression and for display of religious symbols and materials in public and government venues. Although all religions should have equal access and rights regarding those expressions and displays, majority religion would obviously have a major advantage here. But so be it. No one would be hurt or forced to practice any religion against his or her will. If anyone is offended, that's their problem. No one has a right to not be offended, although many people think they have this right. Being offended once in a while is price one has to pay for living in a free and open society. If someone has a major problem with that, they are free to leave this country any time they wish. Our common sense approach should also allow for limited amounts of prayer and religious teaching in public schools. It should not be focus of any public school, but it should be permitted and based on religion favored by majority of parents in a given school district. The majority of parents could opt for no prayer or religious teaching at all in a given school district, if they so desired. All parents would have option of not having their child (children) participate in or be present for prayer and religious teaching. Although teaching of evolution would still be mandatory, creationism could be taught as part of any religious curriculum.
| | Searching for Silence in a Noisy WorldWritten by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur
Searching for Silence in a Noisy World by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthurWhen was last time you were surrounded by silence? It seems that background noise is an ever-present reality of our world. The T.V. and radio are our constant companions. Our children play with electronic toys that beep and wail at push of a button. Our streets are full of roaring engines, tooting horns, and pounding of construction. At night, we may run a fan or have an air conditioner humming in background. We do not even sleep in silence. The sounds of nature and indeed sounds of our own mind are drowned out by constant din. What is it about silence that makes us so uncomfortable? While we have little control over many of noises of our world, what about ones we can control? How often do we make conscious choice to turn off background noise, to pay attention to that which is within us? What is it that we are afraid we will find? It is in those all too rare moments of silence that we can truly come to know ourselves. Only two people who have known each other a great deal can sit comfortably in silence. Among new acquaintances, we force ourselves to keep conversation going. Silence feels forced and awkward. In intimacy of an old friendship or within a marriage, however, silence can be comforting. We do not feel need to always come up with something to talk about. There is no pressure to perform. Nothing is forced. We are free to just be in presence of other. So should it be in our relationship with God. In our prayer, our conversation with God, do we always feel need to be talking? Do we ever stop to listen? God, who loves us and knows us more intimately than any human ever could, exists within us and invites us to just be in presence of divine. Obviously, conversation with God and being with God is different from our human relationships. In our interpersonal encounters, we can see person with whom we are conversing, we can hear their voice on telephone, or read an email from a friend. With God, we need to trust that He is always there with us, whether we sense Him or not. It is up to us to open ourselves to possibility of experiencing God. In silence, we can more fully allow ourselves to be open to that possibility.
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