An entertaining post from “Relapsed Catholic” that bluntly advises the state to leave religion alone. This notion is fine with me as long as my rights as an individual are respected and the rights of innocent minors are not threatened – and this is where things things tend to get a bit murky. No one should be permitted to do harm to others, even in the name of religion. The grey area becomes how we define the terms “harm” and who the state deems to be protected as an “individual”.
The role of defining these terms is our responsibility as a society, and typically that responsibility is managed by our elected officials. More “murkiness” there.
On the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:
The Charter is merely a list of then-current Received Liberal Pieties and should have as much bearing on the average Canadian’s life as a six-year-old Chinese takeout menu. If written today it would include a clause making the separation of paper and glass mandatory for all householders, every other Wednesday.
I wouldn’t have phrased this position quite as colourfully as Kathie, but the essence in here:
There should be no interference by the State in matters of Christian or Jewish doctrine. These and other traditions need to work out these matters for themselves, unless as is so often the case with Muslims, they are busy slaughtering animals in an unsanitary fasion or cutting off bits of their daughters’ genitalia, in which case the force of law should have its way (but rarely does in our multi-culti hell). Dissidents are welcome to join Reform Judaism or the United Church or any other McFaith that suits their estrogen-fuelled emotional bent of the week.
Somebody hasn’t had her coffee yet this morning.
Hat tip to Kate
