Unconventional Sources

Earlier this morning I wrote about the lawsuit to remove Rick Warren from the Constitution. Rick Warren’s involvement in performing an official government Christian religious ritual is a clear defiance of the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom from religious tests for public office, as well as a violation of the separation of church and state.

There’s a related resource that I left out of the article, though: A petition by atheists to remove Rick Warren from the Inauguration, not just because Warren’s activities establish government religion, but because Rick Warren has been an opponent of the Constitution’s promise of equality under the law, campaigning for a new theocracy in which only Americans who believe in his God are allowed to become President.

All in all, this Rick Warren seems to be a nasty extremist.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has sued to remove Christian rituals and theological tests for public office from the 2009 Inauguration of Barack Obama to the position of President of the United States. This lawsuit has many Christian groups infuriated.

Why? Do these Christian groups really believe that their religion will fall apart unless it gains official sanction from the government? Is their God a government dependent?

It’s nonsense for right wing religious groups to claim that a ritual invocation of Christian spirits by a Creationist preacher like Rick Warren and the phrase “so help me God” are an important part of the presidential inauguration process. The truth is that for most of American history, there was no invocation prayer and no use of the phrase “so help me God” in the Inauguration.

Abraham Lincoln didn’t need it. George Washington didn’t need it. So, why are these right wing Christians so upset about a lawsuit that would merely return the Inauguration to its historical roots and constitutional foundation?

It seems to me that they’re really afraid of is the Constitution and American history. They’re trying to change America, not celebrate it.

We’ve just been through a long, long holiday season, beginning with Halloween and stretching through until New Year’s Day. That’s a lot of holy holidays, with just a secular ending with the new year.

There is an alternative schedule of events. Check out the Secular Seasons calendar, which has a year’s listing of non-religious celebrations, stretching from Thomas Paine Day through all the way until the Human Light Celebration on December 23rd.

Might I suggest that they add Issac Newton’s Birthday on December 25th?