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Where Not to Buy Tolerance


So you want a Christian nation, do you?  


What brand of Christianity do you have in mind?  Catholicism?  Southern Baptist?  Lutheran, maybe?  Missouri or Wisconsin Synod Lutheranism?  Maybe Episcopalian, or Pentacostal?  The people ringing our doorbell had something closer to the War of the Worlds in mind.


It does make a difference.  You might, or might not, have access to birth control, or a cocktail.  You might not be allowed to marry someone of another race, or another religion.  You might be back in the good, old days, when our daughters and sisters went away for several months and came home looking tired and sad.  


We could make a long and interesting list of what women could or could not do if this religion, or that one, could write the laws for the rest of us.  There is a lingering odor of testosterone about most religions.  


If you are a Presbyterian, and you think Presbyterians would be in charge, you might (or might not) cheer for the possibility of a Christian nation.  An officially  Southern Baptist nation, or a Mormon nation might scare the hell out of you.


Want to live in Afghanistan or Iran or Salt Lake City?  Not me!  I would rather live in a secular state that didn't care whether I was Catholic or Muslim or Jewish or not interested in religion at all.  That is to say, that affirmed the right to practice almost any kind of religion so long is it obeyed the law, but that did not officially endorse any of them.  Like ours.  


Polls indicate, for example, that 99% of American women use contraceptives.  Ninety-eight percent of Catholic women do, too, even though it is against the clear teachings of their male church authorities.  


Once, partly because it was obvious that Utah could not come a State if it continued to practice polygamy, the Mormon Church had a new revelation from God who, as it turned out, favored statehood, so they abandoned polygamy.  Mostly.  Those horny Mormons who did not agree held firm to their religious faith, and moved to smaller towns all over Utah and Arizona and Idaho and Texas.  The rest of us pretty much leave them alone.  It is important, but we aren't, officially, a religious nation, so we look the other way, and wonder about those women.  Health care, and social security, and jobs and education are more important.  


We can tolerate a little religious foolishness because we affirm religious freedom so long as it doesn't mess up the rest of us.   That is to say, so long as nobody puts it into our constitution.  


We don't mind people who wear religious costumes, so long as the law does not require all of us to wear them.  


But if you are in the market for tolerance, and a little wriggle room for your minor-league sins, it is best not to buy it from a guy who is wearing a religious costume.  

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