So, for a perfect example of why Separation of Church and State is a great principle, see this article posted just an hour ago on CNN’s website. A small snippet…
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[quote]
Taleban reject calls to save statues**
Oh, and it gets better. They’re also planning on destroying all the statues and other religious artifacts in the museums in Afghanistan. All this because images and likenesses are “un-Islamic” (the Mullah’s words). So now there is an international outcry…even Pakistan, which is a pretty big supporter of the Taleban, is apparently weighing in with their opposition to this edict.
I doubt there’s much of a debate here that this is a problem. But I want to expand on this as an example of why we don’t let nativity scenes and such to be displayed on public grounds here in the U.S. And why we don’t allow public prayers at graduations, and why the Federal Government shouldn’t be using “faith-based” charities to do their job. I am going to employ the slippery slope argument, valid or not, to say that unless we keep the bedfellows of church and state totally separate, we’re in for trouble down the road. Think it can’t happen here? Think again.
Agreed - this is religious insanity at its finest. Well, not really, at its finest it results in the slaughter of the infidels. But this is pretty bad in its own right.
My experience (warning: anecdotal evidence) has been that the Christians I know who want prayer in the schools, tax money for churches, etc. wouldn’t really care of if our government became a theocracy a la Pat Robertson. After all, it’s their religion.
Now, if Islam somehow became the national religion…
…also, how is it that, say, the eighty million huge pictures of Saddam Hussein all over Iraq don’t somehow qualify as idolatry? Or do they?
Actually, Saddam is a pretty secular ruler. He did stick the Islamic equivalent of “In God We Trust” on the Iraqi flag back during the Gulf War, but I think that was pretty much just pandering. (Gee, just like the Georgia General Assembly!)
However, I’ve also seen lots of big portraits of the late Ayatollah Khomeini being waved around by Shi’ites. Clearly, different sects of Islam have different rules.
Well, the Taliban is practicing a form of Islam. It’s like the Taliban is to Islam as–I dunno–Jack Chick on crank would be to Christianity. Actually, a fairer comparison would probably be that the Taliban is to Islam as Robert T. Lee is to Christianity, except the Taliban actually run a whole country and not just a web site.
MEB - Geez, warn a person. I need to wash my eyeballs now…
Or I suppose you did warn me; I mean,
?
Scary scary stuff.
Still, the problem with the Taliban is that it takes things past the extreme - I don’t see how anyone can claim that an artifact to a Deific Being (which the Buddha isn’t exactly, but…) who isn’t even followed in their country is encouraging idolatry. Sigh. Of course, although I find their lack of appreciation for history and art appalling, I find their crimes against humanity to be much more so.
Let us save the Women, Children and Men from these folks before we worry about the stones.
