javaman, another thing to consider. You claim that the US and/or its public policy is “shaped by Puritan values” and is a “de facto low church Protestant theocracy”. (color mine)
I have found for a number of years that my family and I have the right to practice Catholicism with total freedom. This extends even to the right to remove my children from the government school system and send them to a fully government-accredited religious school, to come and go as I please on public roadways to attend worship, to purchase non-Protestant Bibles, to deduct contributions to Papist charities from my government income tax, even to receive wine on the Sabbath. Last I checked, Catholicism was neither Puritan nor Protestant.
If the US is a Puritan/Protestant theocracy, they are doing an extremely bad job of it.
My girlfriend is Muslim. Attends Qu’ran readings, volunteers for charities (distributing books, not money, so no raids so far ). Lives in a medium-sized town in central Michigan. Flies frequently – is in DC as we speak. Reports no trouble whatsoever.
Mok,
The “de facto low church Protestant theocracy” line was mine, not Javaman’s.
The specific cites I intended to provide predate 1995 (The state trooper “witnessing” his suspects in the course of an arrest, the school principal in a Mormon town suspending some kid for wearing a “Satanic” t-shirt of Danny DeVito as the Penguin, etc) and are therefore unavailable on the web, so I’m looking for fresher examples. I’ll keep you posted.
). Lives in a medium-sized town in central Michigan. Flies frequently – is in DC as we speak. Reports no trouble whatsoever.