Religious Diversity in Congress: our downfall or our destiny?Muslims, Buddhists and atheists, along with many varieties of Christians, are among those who have been elected to the U.S. Congress. Reactions have been varied. Is this a good thing, or something to be lamented? A panel and discussion will take place Saturday, April 21. To kick off the discussion, panel members are Jeff Allstadt, Jim Bailey and Bud White. This is a public meeting sponsored by The Clay County Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State: Saturday, April 21, at 10 am, at the Fleming Island Public Library, 1895 Town Center Blvd. Welcome. Related: Report Abuse | church-state's blog | login or register to post comments | printer friendly version | Tags: church state separation | pluralism | religion
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I am sorry that I won't be able to attend the panel Saturday am. I'm sure it will be very interesting.
Re-li-gion: a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances and often having a moral code for the conduct of human affairs.
(From my 1973 Random House dictionary)
It seems perfectly logical given the size of planet earth and the wide diversity of the people on it that religious diversity would be a given. The USA is one of the melting pots of planet earth, and therefore would be expected to have many different religions represented. And, we do. I personally think religious diversity, like every other type of social diversity, is normal, and should be seen as part of a healty society. The question becomes how tolerant is our society of this diversity. For the most part, I think pretty tolerant. We set a good example for the rest of the world, I think. Especially given some of the horror stories from around the world. I think the debate over the recent swearing-in of a congressman using the Quran shows we are still working on tolerance, but the swearing-in went on as planned. Question: what "bible" does an atheist use to swear-in? Are there any self-proclaimed atheists serving in Congress?
The deeper you dig with this issue, the stickier it gets. What if an evil-worshiper (is that a word?) gets elected? That would get interesting. Do we really have separation of church and state? If so, this question would not matter at all.
Like I said, I'm sorry I can't be there tomorrow.