Ignorance and Intolerance in the Name of the Lord
On the way here, I was listening to The Diane Rehm Show on NPR. Diane's guest was the Reverend Pat Robertson. Rev. Robertson made some interesting points. For instance, our forefathers (from his tone, he meant back in colonial days) respected the sabbath by not participating in commerce on Sundays; in his opinion, we should do the same. I feel it necessary to point out our forefathers also thought it Christian and moral to own slaves, and to deny most people the right to vote. (In my family, ages 53-22, there are five of us, but only my father could vote. My mother and sister - a lawyer - would be disqualified because of their gender, while my brother and I, both white males, would be excluded as we are not property owners.) If you insist we should blindly ape out ancestors, Reverend, you must be more thorough, or run the risk of hypocrisy.

Also, he feels that the United States, as a nation, should acknowledge our Christian cultural heritage the same way Islamic states do. Saudi Arabia is officially acknowledged as an Islamic state, the new formal name for Afghanistan is the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. I am sincerly impressed with Rev. Robertson that he feels we are morally superior to Muslim countries and that we are distinct and better, yet at the same time we should use their practices as an example to shape our own. It is impressive that a man can so strongly believe in two such contradictory beliefs.

Days like this, I understand why the Mountain is an atheist.