Now, I know that loons all over the place propose all sorts of loony bills, but this story out of KMOV in Saint Louis (behind a free registration page) caught my eye:
Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state’s official “majority” religion.
House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is [sic] pending in the state legislature.
Many Missouri residents had not heard about the bill until Thursday.
Karen Aroesty of the Anti-defamation league, along with other watch-groups, began a letter writing and email campaign to stop the resolution.
The resolution would recognize “a Christian god,” and it would not protect minority religions, but “protect the majority’s right to express their religious beliefs.
The resolution also recognizes that, “a greater power exists,” and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, “justified recognition.”
State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.
KMOV also contacted Gov. Matt Blunt’s office to see where he stands on the resolution, but he has yet to respond.
Here’s the text of House Concurrent Resolution 13. I’m fairly sure this ain’t goin nowhere. That’s not the point, really. I guess this is a salvo in that War On Christians that Keyes, Brownback, Bauer, Cornyn, Schlafly, and Delay are so worried about. Joshua Holland actually thinks this is a trap in that so-called war.
Good comments from Kim over at Think Christian:
Putting aside any church-state objections for the moment, why are so many Christians fixated on cultural domination rather than spreading the gospel? Or to look at it another way, does this resolution glorify God in any way or does it rather glorify political power? What about this resolution could possibly be pleasing to God?
(Also read this interesting article on evangelicals’ historical support for separation of church and state.)
Christians were instrumental in the drive to solidify freedom of conscience in our civic life, the root of the establishment and free-exercise clauses in the first amendment (the roots of the “separation of church and state”). That isn’t limited to Christian free-exercise, but that of muslims, jews, hindus, atheists, agnostics, and what have you. Why the temptation to move towards theocracy? Why aren’t more danger bells going off?
Thanks for the feedback on my site. I haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain either. I heard it was 2 1/2 hours long (funny thing about short stories).
As for your post: I read your original “War on Christianity” post, and got a good laugh. And yet it’s so sad that this is the current goal of so many Christians: defend, defend, defend! I can just imagine Jesus pointing into the 3rd world going “GO! GO! You just don’t get it, do you?”
I happen to live in Missouri (the conservative Southern Missouri) and this doesn’t surprise me. This kind of thing happens a lot. I lived in Oklahoma for a while and it gets worse. I remember election 2006 where “abortionists-should-receive-the-death-penalty” Tom Coburn was running against conservative Democrat Brad Carson (who was also not in favor of abortion but didn’t suggest the death penalty for the doctors). The whole thing turned into a “My faith’s stronger than yours!” debacle. God must surely weep at our foolishness.
Have a good day.
Did I say election 2006? I meant 2004. Sorry