Wednesday, March 2, 2011

On Westboro, Sarah Palin and the First Amendment

Sarah Palin doesn't like the Westboro decision:
Common sense & decency absent as wacko "church" allowed hate msgs spewed@ soldiers' funerals but we can't invoke God's name in public square
So let me just point out: Today's decision further guarantees the right of Palin to march her family and her church down to a public square and talk about God all they want! By protecting Fred Phelps' right to speech, Palin's rights have been preserved, too!

Of course, Palin isn't talking about the right of individuals to proclaim their views and faith in public. She's talking about the right of government to essentially subsidize and sponsor religious expressions in the public square. And ... that's not what government is supposed to do. It's prohibited. And for good reason.

Either Palin doesn't understand the distinction, or she's demagoguing it. Either way, shame on her for trying to make her fellow Americans dumber about the issues at stake.

1 comment:

namefromthepast said...

Not a Palin fan either, and I agree with you mostly.

On the topic of faith/religious expressions not being subsidized by gov't.

Our gov't promotes/educates a lot of programs that are not strictly science based but things that are people's opinions.

I don't think that this case, or any, will or can entirely scrub opinion, be it religious or otherwise, from being pushed by taxpayer money.

My definition of religion may differ from yours but any belief that is subjective rather than objective could be religion.

BTW-This is intended to be fodder for conversation rather than argumentative.