I’m in Favor of Hawaii’s Islam Day and Think We Could Use a Lutheran Day, Too.
I imagine a few folks are going to get excited about the news that Hawaii has officially designated an Islam Day to celebrate “the rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions” of Islam.
To be perfectly honest, I could care less what Hawaii does. I live in Maryland. If they want to kowtow to Islam, they’re more than welcome to do so. If they want to respect an establishment of religion, well, there’s nothing in the Constitution that prohibits it and we conservatives shouldn’t go out of our way to stop them. Being federalists means that we occasionally have to deal with states doing stuff like this.
I’ll go one step farther. What we conservatives should be doing is praising the state of Hawaii for taking the brave step of co-mingling government and religion and asking them to do more of it. There are many other religions that have made more recent and positive contributions to this nation than Islam (since it pretty much stalled out on the intellectual front a thousand years ago or so and their biggest cultural export is the woman-beating and homosexual-killing rules of Sharia). I’m sure they would benefit from a little statewide atta-boy, don’t you think? Hawaii should celebrate them as well with out blessing and encouragement.
While we’re in such an encouraging mood, let’s also not forget to nudge our friends on the left to put their vaunted intellectual consistency into practice here. We know full well if Hawaii had dubbed this Lutheran Day or Baptist Day, the ACLU would have moved so fast it could have run across the Pacific to Honolulu Flash-style. We should ask them, pleasantly but insistently, if they plan to involve themselves in this and if not, why not. Michelle Malkin is on this in exactly the right way when she asks, “Ok, where are the ACLU and Barry Lynn?” Andy McCarthy is similarly wondering for if the President is going to be consistent as well.
“President Obama has vowed to be a no-show for today’s National Prayer Day. Does that mean he is also cancelling the annual Iftaar dinner the Bush White House took to holding to mark the end of Ramadan?
You can almost hear the half-assed answer that you just know will involve words like “respected around the world” and “diversity” can’t you? When that happens, we ought to call BS on it and demand a real answer. No one gets off the hook this time.
This is one of those issues that really could use a national figure to take it up. I’m sure somewhere in the conservative movement there’s someone who can use Hawaii’s proclamation as a “teachable moment” on federalism and to gently but firmly point out the inevitable hypocrisy we’ll see from the left.
(via Suzanna Logan who is engaging in a little hyperbole that may or may not involve alcohol and 72 virgins)
UPDATE: Linked by Duane Lester!
Other Posts of Interest:
Category: Gimme that Old Time Religion, President Barack Obama, Progressives, The Rise of the Nanny State
You know, as the one non-Christian who ever writes here, I say this is bullshit. And I try to be polite here because Jimmie doesn't like foul language, but it's still complete bullshit. And the problem I have is simple: we as Americans do not endorse religions. And we have a Constitution that makes that very clear. I have a real problem with it when we endorse Christianity, and I have exactly the same problem when we endorse any other religion. And let's face it, if you want to endorse my religion (Buddhism) than you can screw yourself. I'll have none of it. But it would be nice if you thought that it might be wrong to endorse your religion at public ceremonies. It's easy claim that you're suddenly being abused when you're the majority religion and somebody asks you to accept their concepts. But it's quite another thing when the majority religion is telling you that your thoughts mean nothing. But, sadly, I'm used to being screamed at by Christians. I'm a devil worshiper, I'm a cretin, I'm a lost soul, I'm the Devil Himself. You know what? I'm just a guy who has a lot thicker skin than you do. And I follow a religion that doesn't expect the announcer at the local football game to endorse my religion. It's strong enough on it's own. But some religion seems to need that extra help to convince people. Too bad you can't just slaughter the people you don't agree with like you used to.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-76895631…
Above video shows how much Islam brought damage to Europe "when Moors ruled Spain" If Hawaiian senate and congress seen this video they would have never voted or passed this bill and they would have learn about real Islam and how much havoc and other damages occurred to Europe by Muslims who ruled Spain for over 600 years.
[...] Jimmie at the Sundries Shack sees Hawaii’s Islam Day and raises them one Lutheran Day. [...]
I don't think that either the State or Federal Govt. should support any religion. A non-denominational national day of prayer I can just swallow but the singling out of any religion, Christian, Muslim, Judaism, Hindu, buddhist or whatever is antithetical to the idea of seperation of Church and State.
I really think this is a slippery slope where religions will compete for scraps of support from local and State Governments and in pockets where some religions have a clear majority there will be abuses and govt. sanctification that allow areas where some groups attempt to exercise dominion over others.
I can understand your point of view and certainly, the singling out of any one religion for favor (Christianity, by the way, is not a religion, but a group of religions) is unconstitutional. However, the notion that church and state has to be entirely separate from each other is neither a Constitutional view nor one that was held closely by any Founder. The only reference to such was in one letter written by Thomas Jefferson.
More, though, the notion that a state could not endorse a particular religion is not prohibited by the Constitution. It may be prohibited by a state Constitution, but that's up to the state, just as the Founders intended it should be. The advantage to you is if you don't like that your state favors a religion, you can move to another one, or petition your state government to change its mind.
But I don't see the situation as religions competing for scraps of support but as a people asking their government to encourage religious belief of all kinds. I believe that is a proper place for government and the founders did as well.
To me there is some hypocrisy between allowing this occasion for any Religion given the limits many communities have placed on Christianity in all of its' many versions. To a Buddhist I know the religions of all of the Sons of Abraham, Christianity, Islam, and judaism all look like versions of the same religion that worships the same God.
I am for a good degree more seperation than this event represents for any religion.
Shall we have a day for each Religion?
How about a day where all non-profits including churches that contribute to their communities are recognized.
Let them have a parade and the Governor or the Mayor can go out just like on Columbus Day and read the list of Community benefits provided by the groups.
Idon't beleive it is the place of the Government or part of our philosophical foundations to single out one religion for Government recognition like this.
As I said, there is no Constitutional prohibition against any state doing this very thing, with one religion or many. Also, as I said, the reasoning for there being the separation that exists now is based on a single letter and avoids all the other writings of the Founders.
One letter?
The revolutionary period is full of discussions and writings on the subject. You are talking about the Danbury Priest letter and that is famous but hardly the only letter or significant piece written on the subject at the time.
The Constitution contains a very direct seperation of Church and State in paragraph 3 of Article 6.
"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".
Note the reference to both State and federal elected officials.
Pretty clear instructions.
Well, I see that someone should not be elected to nor excluded from office because of religion, but that is hardly a separation of the two in the way you have specified.
Indeed, there were a lot of writings about religion and government. Nearly all of them say that religious faith was not only important to the continued success of our system of government, but vital. I can give you a few pages worth of quotes, but a little Googling should do you just fine.
When I refer to the Danbury letter, I do so because it was the fundamental piece of writing cited in the SCOTUS case that erected the famous "wall of separation". Indeed, that phrase is a direct quote from the letter. To my knowledge, no other writing from any founder was used to justify the Court's decision.
As I said, nothing in the Constitution prevents any state from respecting one, several, or all religions. That is the beauty of our system of government. As constructed, states may conduct themselves as they wish and you, as a free citizen, may live in the one whose laws suit you best.
Bravo Hawaii, well done!!
THiS IS MY HOMESTATE ,MY BIRTH STATE, AND MY COUNTRY AND I JUST HAD MY FREEDOM OF RELIGION DENIED BY PEOPLE IN THE WORKPLACE. I ASKED SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL'S STAFF SINCE WHEN DOES THE ARAB WORLD RELIGION TAKE PRIORITY OVER EVERYTHING IN MY UNITED STATES? HOW ARE THOSE ARABS AND MUSLIMS CONSIDERING THEIRSELVES "CHRISTIANS" WHEN YOU SHOW NO COMPASSION FOR THE PEOPLE WHO NEED NOT TO BE REMINDED IT'S OUR PEOPLE NOT YOURS SACRIFICING .YOU MAKE ME BITTER THAT I"M BITTER . THE MIDDLE EAST RELIGION HAS NO PLACE IN THIS COUNTRY. WE ARE AT WAR NOW . PHYSICAL AND MENTAL. I SAY BRING OUR PEOPLE HOME . I SAY= NOT THIS TIME- NOT THE SAME RACE-NOT IN LIBYA. TAKE CARE THE MIDDLE EAST YOURSELF MUSLIMS.