Thursday, February 06, 2014

Is Your Religious Liberty Being Threatened?

I had to repost this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-emily-c-heath/how-to-determine-if-your-religious-liberty-is-being-threatened-in-10-questions_b_1845413.html

It's a really nice quiz:

1. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to go to a religious service of my own choosing.
B) Others are allowed to go to religious services of their own choosing.

2. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to marry the person I love legally, even though my religious community blesses my marriage.
B) Some states refuse to enforce my own particular religious beliefs on marriage on those two guys in line down at the courthouse.

3. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am being forced to use birth control.
B) I am unable to force others to not use birth control.

4. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to pray privately.
B) I am not allowed to force others to pray the prayers of my faith publicly.

5. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Being a member of my faith means that I can be bullied without legal recourse.
B) I am no longer allowed to use my faith to bully gay kids with impunity.

6. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to purchase, read or possess religious books or material.
B) Others are allowed to have access books, movies and websites that I do not like.

7. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) My religious group is not allowed equal protection under the establishment clause.
B) My religious group is not allowed to use public funds, buildings and resources as we would like, for whatever purposes we might like.

8. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) Another religious group has been declared the official faith of my country.
B) My own religious group is not given status as the official faith of my country.

9. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) My religious community is not allowed to build a house of worship in my community.
B) A religious community I do not like wants to build a house of worship in my community.

10. My religious liberty is at risk because:
A) I am not allowed to teach my children the creation stories of our faith at home.
B) Public school science classes are teaching science.

Scoring key:
If you answered "A" to any question, then perhaps your religious liberty is indeed at stake. You and your faith group have every right to now advocate for equal protection under the law. But just remember this one little, constitutional, concept: this means you can fight for your equality -- not your superiority.

If you answered "B" to any question, then not only is your religious liberty not at stake, but there is a strong chance that you are oppressing the religious liberties of others. This is the point where I would invite you to refer back to the tenets of your faith, especially the ones about your neighbors.

Monday, February 03, 2014

Speak American!

The above map shows the native languages and even some current languages spoken in what is now the United States of America and doesn't even include Hawaii, where Hawaian, along with English, is the official language of that state. And there is of course American territories such as Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico and they also have other official languages other than English.

I realize that the left is probably making a bigger deal out of the reaction of some conservatives to the multilingual Coke commercial on the Super Bowl...But the reactions were real and represent a real thought of many in this country.

Here is why those who are upset have no right to get upset about a multilingual:

A. English isn't legally the official language of the United States though it is for certain states. In other words, there is no law establishing an "American language".

B. Our official motto, up until 1956 was in another language, Latin and ironically enough, it meant "Out of many, one"...So if anything, the Coke commercial was living up to that notion and those complaining are the ones who are anti-American, not Coke.

C. There are over 380 different languages spoken in the United States with 60 million people speaking a language other than English at home. So the notion that "we speak English in America" isn't really communicating the big picture.

D. Manhattan, Ohio, Miami, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Des Moines, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, Illinois, Honolulu, Alaska, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Mississippi, Los Angeles, Oklahoma, etc...Are all places in the United States that derive their names from other languages. We took or bought land from Spain, France, Russia, Hawaii, Mexico and thousands of Native American tribes and shouldn't be surprised if some of those languages are still spoken in those areas.

E. Switzerland is one tenth the size of California and has 4 official languages. We'll survive a multilingual commercial.

F. I think I understood more Spanish words on that commercial than I understand "English" words on Bayou Millionaires, Swamp People or Hillbilly Hand Fish'n and ironically, I'll bet the people who watch those shows are the ones most likely to complain about the commercial. So, before we start saying English should be our official language, we need to define English.