Who is Attacking Whom?

Today, Representative Bobby Jindal introduced a resolution supporting prayer before school board meetings with the following statement (as released by his office):

I refuse to sit idly by while a small, but hostile, group of national liberals continues to attack faith and the faithful. Elected officials, such as those in Tangipahoa, choosing to seek wisdom and guidance through prayer, is not only something to be protected, it is something to be encouraged. We ask much of our elected officials, but we should not ask they abandon their faith in order to serve.

Okay, Representative Jindal, in response, I refuse to sit idly by while the right attacks the left as unreligious and immoral.  I’ve steered clear of the religion debate, for the most part, because to me religion is as personal as anything can be and in my view, imposing my religious beliefs on those who visit this site is too much.  But the tenor of the statement (or should I say attack) struck me as not only hostile – to borrow Jindal’s word choice – but untrue in its connotation. 

I’ve had all I can take of the right wing inferences that to be liberal is to be sinful and unholy and without faith or God.  And I am sick to death of the contention that because we (the evil left) don’t support cajoling public citizens into participating in a given denomination’s religious practices simply because they are attending a public event that we are attacking those practicing the religious act.

Shocking as it may be to some people on the right, I am a religious person with a profound faith in God and his awesome power.  I, however, respect the freedom of religion on which this country is founded and refuse to accept that it is okay to raise one religion above others.  As I’ve said before, religion is a private matter – it is between each of us and our god.  Each of us is free to practice the religion of our choice in private or public – so long as our practicing of religion or our religious expression doesn’t force our religious beliefs on others who have made a private, personal decision to follow a different religion or to adopt no religion at all.

It is not that those protesting the prayer in a school board meeting are attacking those desiring prayer for being religious. Nor are we asking them to abandon their faith. The problem with sanctioning a prayer before a school board meeting or a graduation ceremony or a sporting event or any other public event is that not all in attendance are Christian. (And at this point, lets be honest it’s the perceived denial of Christian faith that is rankling the likes of Rep. Jindhal.  If a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu wanted to lead a public group in prayer in like manner and were being stopped I doubt seriously that Jindal and his buddies on the right would be protesting very loudly.)

The problem with including prayer or religious practice in public events is that those not practicing Christianity are being forced to participate in a practice with which they don’t agree.  If that doesn’t qualify as religious coercion then I don’t know what does. 

So, no, I don’t support Jindal’s argument that the left is attacking his religious beliefs.  Jindhal and the school board members are free to practice how they choose and believe what they believe.  They just can’t force others to join them in order to attend a school board meeting where decisions about their children’s education will be made.  And just because I, or any of my buddies on the left, oppose such prayers doesn’t mean we don’t worship an awesome god, it simply means we respect the right of our neighbor to worship a different god. That said I would appreciate it if the right would stop attacking me (and my buddies in the national liberal movement) with their hostile rhetoric because I am not trying to threaten their religious beliefs.

-BG