{"id":8092,"date":"2007-11-07T06:51:19","date_gmt":"2007-11-07T10:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/?p=8092"},"modified":"2007-11-07T06:51:19","modified_gmt":"2007-11-07T10:51:19","slug":"lotd-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/?p=8092","title":{"rendered":"LOTD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Someone in Fayetteville <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fayobserver.com\/article?id=277040#1\">gets it<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>VA chapel can\u2019t choose sides<\/p>\n<p>Joseph Kinney (\u201cPlease don\u2019t take God away,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>This week, let\u2019s allow the Christian implements to stay. Next week, let\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Kinney, I suspect that this plan wouldn\u2019t satisfy you. Isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, the words \u201cunder God\u201d don\u2019t guarantee your religious freedom; the Constitution does. Just don\u2019t pretend that it protects your freedom at the expense of other people\u2019s. 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.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Cox<br \/>\nEastover <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Someone in Fayetteville gets it: VA chapel can\u2019t choose sides Joseph Kinney (\u201cPlease don\u2019t take God away,\u201d 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}