Commentary:
Law and fairness mandated the Doña Ana County Commission’s refusal to celebrate “religious” speeches that insult some constituents.
Separation of church and state was extremely important to the nation’s founders, and our state’s. Madison listed non-establishment of religion first in our Bill of Rights. It’s stated even more explicitly in Article II, Section 11 of our state constitution, which proclaims freedom of worship and adds, “Nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship."
Whether or not sponsoring a day of prayer, without specifying the nature of the prayer, would withstand legal challenge isn’t clear-cut.
However, the context of the vote left a reasonable commissioner little choice.
I have no faith. I prize much of what Jesus and the Buddha are said to have said. I disliked religion when young, because I believed in equality and peace and saw churches hypocritically trampling all over those, although Jesus’s words seemed to suggest compassion. I learned in Tibet to respect the religious faith others guide their lives by, whether it’s Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, or the Mayan spiritual tradition, though I abhor how members of dominant faiths have sometimes treated minorities, or any violence over which god to follow how. Would Jesus want Catholics and Protestants fighting?
The non-establishment of religion our founders prized has remained important, in our modern world, where supposedly “Christian” voices abuse that faith to support exclusion, nationalism, contempt, and discrimination.
Again, Jesus’s words, and their spirit, are wonderful. Living by them is challenging but admirable. But the use of Jesus’s name to foment hatred and divisiveness, as speakers at past local “National Days of Prayer” have done, and as too many are doing across the nation, is un-Christian and un-American.
Our county commissioners represent all of us.
They represent Jews, whom the Catholic Church officially blamed for killing Jesus until about 1963. They represent Islamic immigrants, whose countries suffered “the Crusades,” European colonization, and U.S. imperialism, and who are ill-treated by our federal government. They represent Jews, atheists, and Muslims who have lost jobs or suffered discrimination for their beliefs. Probably Wiccans, too. And the tribes.
They represent women who’ve had abortions – something that was lawful and accepted in the U.S. colonies, but which rightwingers have (with no scriptural evidence of Jesus’s views) claimed Christianity abhors, and have used Christianity to criminalize – with draconian laws, in some states.
They represent gay, transgender, genderless, and just plain “queer” folks who get persecuted by some states in the name of Christianity and who’ve been the subject of hate speech at “Days of Prayer.” They represent men whose lives were destroyed as altar boys by the child molestation epidemic in the “celibate” Catholic Church. They represent Islamic or Hindu parents who wonder why their child was given Christmas-related projects and homework in public schools.
For Christians to worship, and to gather to worship, is wonderful. For Christians here to use “Christianity” (or Jews in the Middle East or Hindus in India with their faiths) as a weapon against others isn’t.
I believe all of us should be grateful each moment for life. But you may not, or may thank a god I never heard of. Great!
Given the “culture wars” and politicians’ use of them to divide and distract us, why not let everyone decide whether or not, and how, to worship. As the founders urged. And as the County heard.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.