LOTD
Someone in Fayetteville gets it:
VA chapel can’t choose sides
Joseph Kinney (“Please don’t take God away,” Oct. 21) believes that the Bible and crucifix should remain in the VA Medical Center chapel. He states that if a non-Christian group uses the chapel, the Christian implements could be removed and then replaced when the non-Christian event is complete. I have a better idea.
This week, let’s allow the Christian implements to stay. Next week, let’s replace them with a Quran and prayer rugs. If Christians want to use the chapel, they can remove them and replace them when they are done. The next week, let’s outfit the chapel with statues of the Hindu deities Vishnu and Shiva. At some point, of course, Wiccan pentagrams will need to adorn the chapel.
Mr. Kinney, I suspect that this plan wouldn’t satisfy you. Isn’t it clear that favoring Christian implements over those of other religions is tantamount to the VA (part of the government) advocating one religion over another? As you state in your opinion piece, you (as an individual) have a right to religious expression. The government (which governs everyone and not just Christians) does not. There is a very clear (and constitutionally significant) difference.
By the way, the words “under God” don’t guarantee your religious freedom; the Constitution does. Just don’t pretend that it protects your freedom at the expense of other people’s. If you want to be free from seeing Wiccan pentagrams in the chapel, Wiccans (and everyone else) have to be free from seeing your crucifix there.
Craig Cox
Eastover
One Response to “LOTD”
 Comment by Lisa Giebitz November 7th, 2007 at 8:11 pm |
Yup, sorry – equality means everyone’s treated the same, not everyone ELSE is treated the same. |