Feeling: Amazed
Listening to: As usual, people talking in background in office
Tasting: Nothing

I just came across the topic of Harry Potter, and how Christians are against it because it's "pagan" and all that... and I was reading this quote from a group called Concerned Women for America, and their discussion of how Harry Potter shouldn't be read in school because it's anti-Christian. Somewhere in there, there may be a point about how public schools shouldn't be allowed to preach anti-religious sentiments (i.e., go against a certain religion - because that would be as bad as leaning towards a certain religion), but it's obscured by what these people are actually saying. I mean, I really can't believe these people actually believe in the stuff they're saying:

"...pagans are already overrunning the country, if the schools’ hostility to the Bible and all things Christian are any indication. Why should Christians be complacent while America's Christian heritage, including Christmas, is ejected from the public schools? Why should Islam be given identical recognition in all matters? There is no Islamic George Washington or John Adams. There is no religious freedom as we know it in countries dominated by Islam. Religious liberty is a Christian concept.

"Unless America’s Christian heritage is vigorously defended, all the while paganism and other religions are presented as acceptable and even superior, then it will be no wonder that Christians might wake up some day to find America an alien land."

Can you believe that people are actually saying this? I'm kind of speechless... I mean, they're saying that since religious liberty is a Christian concept (which, first of all, it's not: since when does Christianity have a heritage of religious acceptance? I mean, I'm pretty sure the only reason America has freedom of religion is because Christianity was so completely intolerant for so long) -- so because tolerance is a Christian concept, that means that we don't actually have to be tolerant? There's kind of this huge contradiction in there that just completely amazes me. I'm just still trying to figure out how this woman can talk about religious freedom and then, in the same breath, tell us that we shouldn't recognize Islamic people as having an equal say in what public schools teach.

Okay... rant over. But do reply and tell me what you think!

Natalie

References: This is from an editor's response to a letter written in response to an anti-Harry Potter article. To see it, go here. And there are some other vaguely valid points in the response, but they're completely overshadowed by these two paragarphs.