Religion and Free Speech Around the World.

The last several days have been horrible and terrifying for many and it makes it far more difficult to try and reduce tensions in the Middle East and in other Islamic countries around the world.

We have freedom of speech and of religion in this country and I respect and stand behind both of those principles but there is an exception to freedom of speech that has been fought through and the Supreme Court has said it is not permissible to shout “fire” in a crowded movie theater.

In my opinion, this movie clip that was released and since the clip is a representation of the movie then the entirety of the movie, in my eyes is shouting “fire” in a movie theater with 10s of millions of patrons throughout the world.

What many people fail to understand is that most of the people in the Middle East have no experience at all with free speech. They have lived under dictatorial rule for generations and no one knows anything except a state run media which says what the rulers want it to say.

With an upbringing in that situation, I find i completely understandable that they would believe that this is something that was condoned by the Untied States government. I do not in any way condone the violence but we need to remember that we are dealing with societies that are, in many ways, still living in the Middle Ages and bringing a 21st century world to them is shocking at the very least.

Free speech notwithstanding I believe that the makers of this film should not in any way profit from it since it was designed to be as offensive as possible to the Islamic world.

Local Ethnic Food

I live in a small town in Adams County Pa. where there are a large number of orchards and with that being the case we have quite a lot of Mexican neighbors.

For a short period of time there was a nice elderly Mexican lady that would come around door to door and sell her homemade Tamales. She had Chicken and Pork.

These are the best Tamales that I have ever had anywhere and suddenly they are no longer to be had. I strongly suspect that one of the town busybodies noticed what was going and reported it since god forbid you should buy food from someone that did not pay an arm and a leg to be licensed by whoever would license around here.

I feel pretty certain that it was racially motivated since my introduction to this town when we first moved here was when I walked into the bank to open an account and the woman teller apologized that there had been a “wetback” in front of me in line.

I don’t know if I got her fired but I went right to the manager and complained and it was not long after that I did not see her anymore. Possibly just transferred to another branch.

I am so sick and tired of being told how much we have progressed in solving the racial discrimination problems. We may have hidden it from the view of large venues but believe me that in many parts of small town America that view is still alive and well.

 

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Intolerance

It is a sad thing that in the year 2012 we still have such incredible intolerance of other Religions, Cultures, and Skin Colors.

Everyone will tell you we have been making great strides in all these areas. I suppose we have made some progress. We no longer have slaves, we also no longer have water fountains and lunch counters that are white only.

We now have groups that are doing everything they possible can do to prevent other religions from practicing their faith in peace.

There are incredible cries of terrorism when a mosque is proposed. There are churches that lose their affiliations when they do something horrible like allowing a homosexual (who can believe in their deity every bit as much as anyone else) is put into a position of authority.

We have politicians and a few judges that are maintaining that Christian Values are all that matter in government which is in direct opposition to the Constitution that they are supposed to uphold.

The Constitution of the United States reads “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. Rick Santorum with all his baloney is saying, by the definition of his words, that he wants to establish that we must follow Christian principles in everything which absolutely violates the 1st Amendment.

Those who protest mosques are also in direct violation of the 1st amendment.

Out biggest problem with much of the world is that we have far too many people in position that the rest of the world can see who are so incredibly intolerant that they really should never be allowed to have anything at all to do with politics or policy anywhere.

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Life Overflowing - Religious & Spiritual Books

Why is the Contraception Issue So Upsetting to People

There are now 7 states that are filing lawsuits because of the contraception mandate. This whole argument is ridiculous. By playing that whole “It foes against the beliefs of the Catholic Church” card they open up a few other issues. It would be one thing if contraception was forced on the employees but it is voluntary for the employees to make use of it. Those that are Catholic and have those same beliefs will not use it. Those that are not catholic may very well make use of it. By refusing to allow it, employers that are wholly or primarily religious in nature are then forcing their beliefs upon the employees that are not of that same religion which flies right in the face of Freedom of Religion.

There are those that will say then just don’t go to work for those companies that have those beliefs and stipulations in their health care plans. That is an easy thing to say but it points out another problem. If we go that route then we are actually giving companies a way to discriminate against those who do not have their beliefs by making their health care something that would be unhelpful for those of different beliefs.

Now admittedly that would not be obvious discrimination but it would be discrimination none the less.

Get a grip people. It is really not the end of the world to allow people of different beliefs to be comfortable and to have access to basics that conform to those beliefs. If you do not want to do that then start posting advertisements offering jobs and noting that you must be a practicing Catholic in order to apply. Unless the opening require an ordination of some kind within the church I suspect that the results would be somewhat less than desirable from an HR and PR perspective.

Good luck with that!

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Religion and Politics

Does it strike anyone as odd that todays politicians are completely ignoring one of the things this country was founded on?

The Puritans came to this continent because they were persecuted and were not allowed to practice their religion in England.

Now we have many politicians telling us that we need to make sure this country gets back to it’s Christian roots. While the Puritans were indeed Christians, the reason they left, and one of the roots of our constitution, is the the right to religious freedom.

If our politicians believe so strongly that we need to be a completely Christian nation, then we are really no better than the Taliban from the stand point that one religion must be used to come to every answer needed by the country and the population.

For those that are now jumping up and down and screaming, I am in no way saying that I agree with the way the Taliban treats its people and particularly the women but the mindset (religious views ruling all) is the same.

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Happy New Year

I was on Facebook very shortly after midnight local time here watching and commenting on some of the many Happy New Year posts that were coming through. A young man that I worked with pointed out that no one was giving thanks for the year that had past and what we had been given or what we had endured.

He was right. While there a few mentions from some of my friends overseas, they were rather few and far between.

I suspect in part this is because of how politically and socially charged religion has become. We have the Westboro Baptist Church which uses the 1st amendment of our constitution to say unspeakable things at the funerals of people who have died while the family and friends of the deceased person are still coming to terms with their grief.

We have groups that condemn anyone of Middle Eastern origin because they might be followers of Islam even though it is the radical few within Islam that are the terrorists and not by any stretch the majority.

We have people that will never vote for a Mormon for President.

What does this say about us all as inhabitants of the world. And we are inhabitants of the world. We must learn to all get along together because the world has become such a much smaller place.

It says to me that every single church must step back and look at its congregation and see what direction should be taken to try and bring things under control and to stamp out the hate as much as possible.

I am not against Religion. I do not go to church very often any more because listening to the all the completely unfounded gossip that comes with groups of people does not do anything at all to make Sunday a day of worship.

I am actually rather glad at this point that my job requires that I work on Sunday.

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