"Official" Religion

Utah’s charter member of the Senator for Life Club, Republican Orrin Hatch, recently was quoted as saying that states and municipalities have the right to, can and should, establish official religions. What the He** was he thinking? (On second thought, does Orrin ever think before he speaks?)

Really, Senator?

What if one of the southern states, let’s say Mississippi, establishes the Southern Baptists as the state’s official religion. They could then pass legislation that, for example, dictates mandatory bible study, as they see fit, in school. And they could also mandate prayer, complete with fire and brimstone, before school lunch. How would the thousands of children, whose families are members of The Church of Latter Day Saints in Mississippi, feel about that? Do you think it would make them uncomfortable, or shunned? Think about it, Senator. How would the parents explain it to their children?

In Boston, the school children could be mandated to recite the (Catholic) Rosary before entering high school. Would that have made your children happy, Senator? Would you have been able to explain this to your children?

Senator Hatch, I know you are old enough to remember the terrors of the cold war, when Russia and China banned religion; how many people were persecuted for trying to follow their religious beliefs; and the backlash that was created in many countries because of that persecution. That backlash inserted the words “under God” into the American Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, thank you (?), Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon.

On a global scale, Senator, you have seen, heard, and rightfully decried the atrocities carried out in the name of state-sanctioned religions around the world. Can you believe, for one moment that would not happen here if we had states and municipalities establishing official religions?

Senator, I am sorry. I am sorry that you feel you have to pander to the religious right in order to raise campaign contributions and get re-elected, and use your “war chest” to fund other people’s campaigns for office.

More importantly, Senator, in the face of the current economic and social stress facing our great country, I am sorry that you want to focus the discussion, not on matters that affect our overall well-being as a country, but on matters that can only divide us further. I expect better from you.

Respectfully,

R.M. “Bob” Hartman- an active voter in Utah.

Comments are welcome, as always.

(City Weekly, December 10, 2015, page 8)

Massacre in San Bernadino

Another day, another public massacre, more mass hysteria.

“Round them all up.” “Get search warrants for every Muslim living in the United States and search all their homes for guns and bombs.” These were the comments I heard in the lunch room at work today. (The day after the San Bernadio Massacre.)

Well, people, guess again. Syed Farook was born in the United States, in Chicago; and his wife, Tashfeen Malik was born in Pakistan and as a child moved to Saudi Arbia, with her father, then back to Pakistan, where she obtained a college degree. We don’t know yet what radicalized them and led them to conduct the action, this massacre. As they are dead, we probably will never really know.

But mass discrimination, based on place of birth, is nothing new to America. In the 1830’s, help wanted signs stated “no Irish need apply.” It was disgusting then, and it is just as vile today. We should not discriminate against a person based upon birthplace.

Nor should we, as some have suggested, discriminate on the basis of religion. Not everyone who follows Catholicism is a child molester, nor is every follower of Islam a terrorist. Yes, the ISIS/ISIL group has declared war on the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia and now China. It is ISIS that we need to defeat. It is ISIS that is radicalizing these so called lone-wolf terrorists. It is also ISIS that is using social media to spread its agenda around the world.

ISIS needs money to operate. That is a fact we need to address. Recent news coverage from France shows French fighter jets destroying row after row of tanker trucks at oil facilities, oil that is sold on the open market to fund ISIS’s operations. As a world hopefully united in stopping the spread of ISIS terrorism, we should concentrate on destroying their ability to refine and move oil, and also to stop companies and countries from purchasing that oil. There is a coalition of countries, lead by the United States, which is making some progress in achieving that step.  Great Britain has now committed to air strikes against ISIS targets.

ISIS also needs its social media. There are people, in the United States and abroad, who are geniuses with social media. Perhaps it is time to bring them together, to charge them with the duty of shutting down the social media sites ISIS uses, both on the common internet and the deep web. In doing so, they can also trace back to the source of the ISIS media, and then use ground forces, or air strikes, to shutter these physical sites. They can also trace who is looking at this social media, and then determine if they are casual viewers or more dangerous in their intent.

Yes, we need to take action regarding ISIS/ISIL. We need to defeat them, to deny them the ability to radicalize people and encourage those radicalized to commit murders for ISIS’s sake, in ISIS’s name.

But we shouldn’t, and don’t need to, discriminate against an entire religion because of the crimes of a few.

Of course, this is just my opinion, and I am open to discussion regarding this issue!

Thanks for reading.

R.M. “Bob” Hartman