Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Freedom FROM religion? Or freedom OF religion






When I first saw this clip, I was sick to my stomach. Many emotions went through my mind; one of these emotions being, "I shouldn't be feeling this way." I only say this because something inside me wanted to have the "go get em', take one for the team!" type attitude. But I couldn't.

I couldn't get past the fact that we live in a country where we all have the freedom to pray to and worship whoever we please. Rather than disagree with AK47's, we can disagree by using education and good argumentation. But is there a difference in freedom FROM religion and freedom OF religion? Let's look at the latter.

If we have freedom OF religion, and we choose to abide by this, then in no way should we stop such a man making such a prayer in the Senate. Now, you may disagree with his religion completely. I do, anyways. But just because I disagree with it doesn't mean that he has rights too.

But what about freedom FROM religion? If we declare that hindu's don't have the right to pray at a Senate meeting such as this, then what rights do Christians have? Are we going to be consistent in upholding the law of the land or not? At any rate, I found the behavior of those who interrupted the prayer to be repulsive and disrespectful. I couldn't imagine a more rude way at getting your message across.

Since i'm not much of a politician, these are still issues i'm thinking through. I'd appreciate all your thoughts on the matter.

*By the way, all the quotes mentioned in my last blog were from the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society; also known as Jehovah's Witnesses.

No comments: