Reply #64: endorsing it in governmental function takes the freedom away [View All]

[PurityOfEssence]

Why is this so hard to understand? To demand children to say a pledge with "god" in it is to FORCE them to believe or go along with the gag. To invoke it within the functions of one's job as a public employee is to deprive others of their freedom. I have the freedom of throwing rocks at the beach, but not if there's someone's head in the way; the test is the denial of the rights of others.

The opposite of having the ten commandments in public buildings is not the hate-filled intolerance of having nothing or a nice abstract sculpture, it's to have a crucifix with a big red circle and a slash. It shouldn't be an offense to have compulsory religion of a divisive nature absent in the symbolic house of us all. It is an offense to have a big sign there that says "there's no god", just as it's an offense to have a monument falsely claiming to be the source of our ethics that starts off with "I am god, the only one, and you shall have nothing before me including these pesky secular hobbies". That's offensive.

Exercise of religious belief under the endorsement of government is the denial of my beliefs. I have no interest in telling you what to believe or forcing you to endure my worship as part of my duties as a public employee, and by the Constitution it's the same for us all. The Constitution is not pro- or anti- religion; it's religion-neutral.