Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Where the First Amendment doesn't matter

There are certain things I would like to see in this country, certain decisions I'd like to see the Court reach. I really wish that I had the opportunity to go talk to the Court, and some members of Congress, so that I could tell them how they should rule.

Unfortunately, I'm not Catholic, so I don't get that opportunity. Apparently, every year there is what is known as a "red mass." This is an annual event where the Catholic Archdiocese meet in DC to tell the Court how it should rule on issues important to the Catholic Church (such as limiting the Separation of Church and State).

This year, according to the above linked Americans United article, Archbishop Timothy Dolan told the justices in attendance (there were six), "It is a cherished part of our American heritage, then, to rejoice in a mutually enriching alliance between religion, morality, and democracy." Now, for those uninitiated to American History, the bulk of the Colonies' citizenry at the time of the Revolution were Protestant, not Catholic - which was viewed as a religion with some skepticism as recently as when Kennedy was running for President. So, it's unclear what alliance between religion and democracy was envisioned, but from the sounds of it, one would probably draw the conclusion of Christianity (conveniently forgetting the aforementioned distrust), and as such, necessarily the exclusion of Buddhism, Hinduism (Scalia would particularly hate this one, since America is based on The God of Monotheism, according to him), Islam, or any other non-Christian belief...

While I, like the poster at Americans United, have no problem with anybody attending any religious ceremony or participate in any religion they choose, I do have a problem when any religion uses the premise of a sermon to try to influence the Court.

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