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From: rjb@akgua.UUCP (R.J. Brown [Bob])
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Christian nation
Message-ID: <1006@akgua.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Sep-84 17:14:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: akgua.1006
Posted: Wed Sep 26 17:14:26 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Oct-84 21:20:45 EDT
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Mr. BenDavid,

You misrepresent what I desire.

I desire the freedom of school children to pray (on their own
without "official" sanction) out loud if they want to.
A truly vital understanding of freedom of speech includes
free religious speech as well as other kinds of speech.

Scenario:

40 students in a classroom, 15 minutes before class begins.

16 Christians congregate in one corner of the room for a few
minutes of prayer (or out in the hall if there are too many
to comfortably fit)

5 Jews congregate and ...

6 atheists sit around and grin knowingly about the Jews and Christians
while rolling their eyes occasionally

0.5 Buddhists spin their prayer wheel and ..

You get the idea.

Right now in a lot of school systems my scenario could not come
true because a few vocal atheists and others have twisted the
establishment of religion taboo into a straight-jacket on 
freedom of religious speech.  Religious speech is definitely
second class speech in this country especially in the academic
community.

I also noticed you have colossal chip on your shoulder Mr. B...

I apologize for any part my ancestors may have had in persecuting
your people.  But if the US were truly a Christian nation I firmly
believe that Jews would be better off because they wouldn't
get the ration of %$#! they have gotten elsewhere and would be free
to practice Judaism without hassle.

I would expect you to face the fact that Judaism is not very
evangelical (these days anyway) and the only way you are going
to be able to remove the blasphemy from in front of your face
is to move your face.  But I think it will take quite an outbreak
of soul saving before the US becomes a Christian nation


Do you really prefer secular humanism and paganism to real
Christianity or is it some Hitler or Constantine Christian
straw man you are spewing venom on ?


Bob Brown {...ihnp4!akgua!rjb}