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<DIV><EM>Thanks for posting this. It says very clearly what I have been
trying to convey to both friends and foes for some time...</EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM>Debi R-S</EM></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=art.deco.studios@gmail.com
href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">Art Deco</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, October 12, 2012 3:34
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Religion and
government remain a dangerous andvolatile mix</DIV>
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<H1>Religion and government remain a dangerous and volatile mix</H1>
<H3>By <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rick-wingrove/2011/07/28/gIQAorRdiK_page.html"
rel=author>Rick Wingrove</A>, <SPAN
class="timestamp updated processed">Published: October 11</SPAN> </H3>
<P><EM>Rick Wingrove is the CEO of </EM><A
href="http://beltwayatheists.org/"> Beltway Atheists, Inc,</A> <EM>the
Virginia State Director of </EM><A href="http://www.atheists.org/">American
Atheists</A> <EM>, and a contributor to The Washington Post’s </EM><A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/gIQAyIUWFJ_page.html">local
faith leader network</A>.</P>
<P><A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/christopher-hitchens-a-vanity-fair-writer-was-a-religious-skeptic-and-acerbic-master-of-the-contrarian-essay/2010/12/17/gIQAtiBHxO_story.html">Christopher
Hitchens</A> famously said that “religion poisons everything.” While a
thorough search might turn up technical exceptions to this rule, one of the
things <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/politics-and-religion-of-voters/2012/10/08/ec3f3a66-11bb-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_graphic.html">religion</A>
certainly does poison is politics. Poison politics leads to toxic government.
</P>
<P>Religious types have been leaning on government and meddling in elections
since they were thanked for their input and given nice parting gifts by the
authors of the Constitution. The problem for religious ideologues is this:
despite some pretty extraordinary and self serving claims about <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/birth-control-mandate-beyond-our-god-given-rights/2012/02/14/gIQAMhnSDR_blog.html">mandates</A>
and dictates received directly from a micromanaging Bronze Age deity, the
Constitution simply provides no role for religion in the government of the
United States. </P>
<P>Official endorsement of any religion is prohibited. Religious tests for
elected office are prohibited. The result of our constitutional
non-establishment of religion has been a system of government that is
nominally neutral on religion and which, by design, provides equal rights,
protection, and access to all citizens regardless of their <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/how-to-tell-if-youre-an-atheist/2012/05/30/gJQADy561U_blog.html">opinions
on religion</A>. What could possibly be fairer than that? </P>
<P>The worst elements of religion, however, don’t consider this matter
settled. Rabid fundamentalism, based on biblical literalism, is rampant in our
politics. It would be a tremendous redistribution of the facts to argue
that religious adamancy resides equally on the left and on the right. The
imbalance has grown so great that the right genuinely believes that the god
and creator of the entire universe is a Republican, that they are entitled to
govern, that whatever it takes to install them permanently in power qualifies
as “democracy,” and that compromise is the work of Satan and entirely out of
the question. Claiming a mandate from a supreme deity is the ultimate
untrumpable hand. </P>
<P>The result of this intractable ideology is <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/13/13-reasons-why-this-is-the-worst-congress-ever/">legislative
paralysis</A> at a time when we could really use some rational solutions.
Instead, democracy is being commandeered and driven into a ditch by those who
would inflict <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/in-missouri-clergy-in-the-fray-of-akin-race-seeing-it-as-start-of-a-battle-for-the-soul-of-gop/2012/10/08/500ab2c4-0eff-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html">faith-based
social legislation</A> taken from Leviticus and whose science comes from
Genesis.</P>
<P>Doubling down on mean and ignorant is neither a recipe for success nor the
character of greatness. Science denial will never result in greater
understanding of the workings of the universe. <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/god-particle-discovery-is-a-win-for-science-over-superstition/2012/07/11/gJQAQT8NdW_story.html">Science
denial</A> and its siblings math denial, fact denial, and utter disregard for
logic, feed a disturbing resurgence of anti-intellectualism. History instructs
us well on this matter.</P>
<P>The religion-based denial of equality and rights for women is a remnant of
a life-crushing morality devised by men who thought the earth was flat. Such
<A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-the-war-on-women-get-women-into-office/2012/04/27/gIQARFidlT_story.html">cultural
misogyny</A> is a declaration of war against the very notions of Life,
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. </P>
<P>Religion proposes equally dire outcomes for gays, people who get tattoos,
men who get haircuts, anyone who works on Sunday, or who eats shellfish. But
the cafeteria religious believers are <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/chick-fil-a-president-dan-cathy-bites-into-gay-marriage-debate/2012/07/19/gJQACrvzvW_blog.html">focused
like a laser on gays</A> and find prescriptions for hate in their ancient
texts.</P>
<P>It may or may not be unfair to blame every failure of government on
religion when some are likely the outcome of plain vanilla ignorance. But the
right, currently and openly awash in rapturous faith, is providing a home and
a pulpit to the most toxic, coercive, and repressive elements of religion.
</P>
<P>Government should be a solution engine, populated by the informed people,
focused on outcomes beneficial to all. The government of the U.S. must never
become a tool for the imposition of religion on the unwilling and the
unconvinced. Done by others, we call it <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/muslim-without-sharia/2012/01/19/gIQApEbIBQ_blog.html">sharia</A>.
And Hitchens had exactly that in mind when he called it poison.</P>
<P> </P>
<P><STRONG></STRONG></P></DIV>
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<P><BR></P><BR clear=all><BR>-- <BR>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<BR><A
href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com"
target=_blank>art.deco.studios@gmail.com</A><BR><BR><IMG
src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><BR><BR>
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