Where do I start? Where do I start? It’s difficult for me to determine where I should begin to explain all the things that I find horrifying about this video…
Let me start here. I’m not ashamed to say I’m a Christian either. Let me say this first: Rick Perry does not speak for all Christians.
Guess we’ll work chronologically.
“You don’t need to be in the Pew every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military”
First of all, everyone who is capable and has a desire to serve our country in the armed forces should be welcomed as they are. Men, women, homosexuals, heterosexuals, Caucasion, African-American, Asian, Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim, this is a country where all are welcome, and our military should reflect that. There is no reason why people who are gay should be prohibited from serving in the military forces. In the American Revolution or the Civil War, women dressed as men to try to serve their country, they had to hide who they were as well. Now, women are valued members of the services, sometimes even being able to accomplish tasks that men are not, such as speaking with local women to gather information. And really, gays being allowed to serve in the military, that’s really the worst thing you can think of that’s wrong with this country? What about the fact that gay teens are feel forced to commit suicide because of excessive amounts of bullying because of their sexual orientation? Don’t you think that’s much more concerning in what it says about America and our values?
“but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school”
First of all, I’m a devout Christian, I’ve grown up celebrating Christmas, and I know no one who has had to hide the fact that they celebrated Christmas. In fact, I’m a Christian and I sometimes wish people didn’t so openly celebrate Christmas. I also have attended both Christian and public school. I have lived in both worlds. I miss having prayers in class, I’ll admit it, they can be a nice way for people to come together. But I was in a Christian school. It has never crossed my mind that it would be appropriate in a public school. Aside from the fact that not everyone’s Christian, not everyone’s religious. There are Creaster people (people who only go to church on Christmas and Easter, or in Jewish equivalents, only on High Holidays) and then there are outright atheists and agnostics. Having organized prayer in school just isn’t appropriate in public school, the place for that is home, church, (or your equivalent) and within a group of people who have agreed that they are comfortable with something like that. Besides, I pray in school all the time, but it’s between me and God, and that’s something that no one can legislate away from me. I don’t know why we think that it has to be in an organized setting to be real. Whatever personal feelings are, we are a nation that does not institutionalize religion, and that means that in our public institutions, organized prayer does not have its place.
“as President, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion”
Okay, if you’re going to be making an ad that thousands of people are going to see, get your facts right. Things you’re discussing, such as what is acceptable in terms of school prayer or in public Christmas displays, those decisions weren’t made by Obama, they were made by the supreme court. There’s no war on religion, at least not from the government, that there’s a culture that’s turning more hostile to religion in general, I’ll give you that, but I don’t think government’s how you fix that.
“and I’ll fight against liberal attacks on our religious heritage”
Okay, as any of you can see if from the title of this blog, much of what this blog is about is the mistaken belief among many in our country (a disproportionate amount of them being in politics) that religion and politics go hand in hand. Conservative=Religious (i.e. Christian), Liberal=Secular (i.e. evil…just kidding, sort of). Things aren’t this clear-cut. I’m a liberal and I’m an evangelical Christian. There are religious liberals, there are secular conservatives. There are conservatives and liberals who are both religious but believe the first amendment means that we shouldn’t insitutionalize religion. I don’t like it when liberal is used to mean secular. I don’t like it when conservative is used to mean Christian. Things are much more complex than this.
All in all, I was rather horrified by Rick Perry’s ad, even more horrified when the only real outcries I heard were on social networking sites and not by any in the media. Religion isn’t an us-them thing, there are no teams. I found Rick Perry’s ad concerning and more than that, I found it sad that he actually thought that the majority of Americans held the same views.