One of the great features of the American form of Government, is the ability to prevent, what Alexis de Toqueville called "The Tyranny of the Majority".
There are processes in place that provide an opportunity for a minority to seek protection from a majority who would seek to do the minority group harm. From the Civil Rights Act, to the Voting Rights Act, and on and on, the Federal Government has, throughout history, provided protection for groups who are not the majority in this country.
The first amendment of the United States Constitution exemplifies this belief by enshrining into the very basic structure of this country, freedom of speech, and freedom of religious expression. Implicit in that freedom of religious expression, is the right of ALL Americans to be free from having any one religion, or even any religion forced on them.
With this in mind, when I read this that I weep for the state of our country:
Amidst the threat of numerous legal battles, the Brunswick County [North Carolina] board of education decided Tuesday, 3-2, to make a leap of faith by allowing religious groups to hand out scripture to area teenagers.
Disregarding school board attorney Joseph CauseyÂ’s advice and warnings from politically active groups, board members decided during their monthly meeting Tuesday night to move forward with initial changes to its current religion in schools policy that could potentially give the board the right to decide which faiths county high schools will open their doors to and which ones they will turn the lock on.
Religious Right groups all across the country have stated repeatedly that there is a "War on Christianity". That they, the majority, are being oppressed. God is being rejected, etcetera, etcetera, we've all heard it before. Washington Democrats, for fear of being painted as "anti-religious", kowtow before these groups. They tremble at the thought that the Religious Right wont vote Democrat, eventhough they don't anyway.
The entire irony of this, is that it is the Religious Right who are trying to force the non-Christians, and non-Evangelical Christians into their way of thinking. Despite all warnings, these groups push ahead with distributing the bible in public schools. Try to get Creationism taught in science, try to eliminate sex education, even try to prevent people from having sex unless procreation is the goal.
So, as Liberals we watch these battles unfold, and watch a school district prepare to waste tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayers money preparing to engage in a legal battle to subvert the Constitution of the United States, and force the majority religion on all students. We watch in disgust, and we watch in anger as the majority tries to impose tyranny on the minority. The only comfort we have, is that very same Constitution, and the hope that those "activist judges" follow the Constitution, and subvert that tyranny of the majority. And as
Hecate (thanks for the original link) said, wait for Americans to wake up and say:
Enough is enough.
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