LETTERS

Religious intolerance seemingly trumps Roger Williams’ ideals

Posted 5/8/14

To the Editor:

Poor Governor Chafee. He tries to institute the principle established by Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams, of freedom and equality of religion and what does it earn him? …

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LETTERS

Religious intolerance seemingly trumps Roger Williams’ ideals

Posted

To the Editor:

Poor Governor Chafee. He tries to institute the principle established by Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams, of freedom and equality of religion and what does it earn him? Vituperation.

When Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, he did so to escape regimented religionists who insisted he worship the way they believed, whether it suited him or not. Williams sought religious freedom and offered those who followed him the opportunity to worship whoever they wished in whatever manner, without government interference. This tenet was adopted and incorporated into the Rhode Island and the national Constitution, guaranteeing that everyone would be treated equally, with favoritism shown to no one.

Too bad those who claim the highest allegiance to our Constitution wouldn’t read and understand this better. Christopher Curran is dismayed that the governor inaugurated a Rhode Island Day of Reason, which was celebrated at the same time as the National Day of Prayer. Through some miscomprehension, Curran believes that the Day of Reason supplanted and abolished the Prayer event. This mistaken notion has severely disturbed Currans’ universe to the point where he assails Governor Chafee mercilessly for Chafee’s audacity at attempted unity. Let’s ignore the fact that the governor can’t unilaterally abolish a national celebration he didn’t begin. Nor can he prevent anyone from celebrating a day of prayer (prayer that Jesus says you should do in private and not ostentatiously and pridefully in front of everyone). Consider there are many different religions in the state. Which prayer should we use for the Day of Prayer? Catholic? They’re the state’s major religious group. But that would offend the Protestants, Mormons, Scientologists, Jews, Hindus, Shintoists, pagans, and Humanists. I imagine Mr. Curran would reject a Moslem prayer, since he’s upset that we have a “holiday tree,” rather than a “Christmas tree,” in the State House (a tradition harking back to many Republican governors but which is now a sore point since Chafee is an apostate right-winger).

But, really, does Mr. Curran require the government or anyone else to tell him what day he must pray, that he must have an occasion designated when he can seek divine guidance? Must he depend on a calendar, if his pastor hasn’t indicated the time to pray has come? More importantly, why must the National Prayer Day be so closely entwined with Republican politics? Almost every speaker at the national event used the occasion to pillage the president, to the point where a Democratic legislator actually walked out during one partisan prayer. 

Most intriguing is that Mr. Curran has conflated the naming (or renaming) of a tree, and the start of what to him is an odious celebration, into a perception that the governor is unable to govern properly. Treating every citizen with proper respect is apparently anathema to Mr. Curran. In Mr. Curran’s world, religious intolerance seemingly trumps Roger Williams’ ideals.

Barry Nordin

Warwick

Comments

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  • Paul_Auger

    Good points Barry, I wrote the following comment to Mr. Curran's letter, he never respond, Perhaps one of your readers or you yourself will answer:

    find it funny that those who claim to serve and represent a real, fact based god would not embrace a day of prayer and a day of reason taking place on the same day. It seems to me, that if your god did exist, that he would be linked to reason and that you would embrace calling a day of prayer a day of reason. Your own mythology has a verse that says, “Come let us REASON together.”

    By fighting a proclamation, which lacks any real power, it is not law, nor does it make the day of prayer or the day of reason an official state or federal holiday, you show your true colors.

    You show that you know prayer is not based on anything reasonable. You show that you know that faith and reason are exclusive of each other. By protesting so loudly you make it clear that reason it a threat to faith, and that when push comes to shove reason will win and faith will buckle under its own weight. By complaining about this you put a chasm between faith and reason making it an either or proposition suggesting that people of faith cannot use reason. That is something we can both agree on.

    If you read this letter it seems to suggest that reason is offensive and even the antithesis of prayer. It suggests that only atheist can use reason and that prayer and reason cannot coexist. This seems typical of the religious community’s response to anything that they perceive as a threat.

    1. They Claim they are being attacked

    2. They bring up all sorts of unrelated nonsense to act as a smoke screen

    3. They try to discredit the whole discipline i.e. science is bad

    4. They use and reuse worn out talking points

    6. They stick their fingers in their ears and go LA LA LA LA LA

    In addition to the letter above one only need to look at the respoces to the “Cosmos” series on the Answers in Genesis web site written under the leadership of Ken Ham.

    Friday, May 9, 2014 Report this