Monday, April 26, 2021

The Magna Carta, Too





Three takes, and two are not helpful.


Stop it right now. Stop saying someone should be fired for saying something ignorant. And this is only a little better:

 

Rick Santorum at the Young American Foundation gathering on April 23 had stated

If you think about this country, I don't know of any other country in the world that was settled predominately by people who were coming to practice their faith. They came here because they were not allowed to practice their particular faith in their own country. And so they came here, mostly from Europe, and they set up a country that was based on Judeo-Christian principles -- when I say Judeo-Christian, the Mosaic laws, 10 Commandments, and the teachings of Jesus Christ, the morals and teachings of Jesus Christ. That's what our founding documents are based upon. It's in our DNA.

You know, if you think of other countries like Italy and Greece and China, Turkey and places like that, they've all, sort of, changed over time. I mean, they've been there for millennia in many cases. And their culture has, sort of, evolved over time. But not us.

We came here and created a blank slate. We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes we have Native Americans but candidly there isn't much Native American culture in American culture. It was born of the people who came here pursuing religious liberty to practice their faith, to live as they ought to live, and have the freedom to do so. Religious liberty. Those are the two bulwarks of America. Faith and freedom. I mean, you hear it all the time about faith and freedom, faith and freedom. But it is what makes America unique in the world.

When someone invokes Jesus Christ in support of something bigoted, ignorant, or harmful to the American people, there is often a more effective retort. Much better than than saying Rick Santorum is a bigoted troglodyte or should be fired


 

Once upon a time In America, anti-discrimination laws were meant to apply to everyone. However, the Supreme Court continued its trend when in its last term

the court sided with Christian religious groups in three argued cases. The court ruled that state programs supporting private schools must include religious ones, that the Trump administration could allow employers with religious objections to deny contraception coverage to female workers and that employment discrimination laws do not apply to many teachers at religious schools.

And the court will soon decide whether Philadelphia may bar a Catholic agency that refused to work with same-sex couples from screening potential foster parents.

After Justice Barrett joined the court, it changed positions on the one question on which religious groups had been losing: whether governors could restrict attendance in houses of worship to address the coronavirus pandemic.

This nation has been on course to wring discrimination from its laws and customs- except in one area. If a plaintiff can claim that Jesus made him (her or them) do it, the common good and equal treatment under the law give way.

Santorum cites the Mosaic Laws (i.e., Mosaic Law), the Ten Commandments, and Jesus Christ so he can be, or appear, ecumenical. However, either, whether in the New Testament or the Old Testament, is antithetical to the separation clause. And when the ex-Senator says "it's in our DNA," he implies it's biological, thereby leaving no room for disagreement.

The real danger is not what Rick Santorum believes about Native Americans or their culture, about Italy, Greece, China, or Turkey. It's in the false premise of the Republican Party's white  evangelical base. "God is on our side."

 


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