BIG BUCKET OF WORMS Our judicial system seems to be confusing the terms "God" and "Religion". The exhibition of the text of "The Ten Commandments" is an act which sets a small portion of the Judeo-Christian heritage in the form of words printed, etched, or formed in stone, metal, wood or on paper or a plastic material. Such a representation is not God. That "it" is not a deity.
It is a prime irony of our time that the group of men and women who gather periodically to worry themselves sick about such matters, is a body which starts and closes its formations with a formal word of prayer. It is a statement made to show that God's will is to be the basis of their considerations, but that prayer is not God. Often in the process of their deliberations they take oaths as if an all-seeing, all-knowing God was among them. Those are symbolic oaths - verbalized entities, but they are not God. At times, such celebration of blessedness are accompanied by the ringing of bells, the firing of ceremonial cannon, displays of sky-searing fireworks, the marching to-and-fro of many feet - how petty a printed copy of the Ten Commandants posted to be praised for having guided me to make better choices. That statue,ha plaque, hat b banner ,that book-all are but symbols of the presence of God but they are not God.
If we are to eliminate such symbols from our daily lives then the same must apply to other religious faiths. Gone forever will be the wearing of gaudy saffron-colored dresses and gowns worn by members of an oriental religion ...not their God - but a symbol of sacred meaning to them. Special hair-dressings, beards and mustaches must be restrained for they, too, are symbols in some groups, headgear worn indoors are ob ed forbidden and and ceremonial lighting of candles not being used for lighting for dispelling darkness must be drastically controlled,being a prime symbol of so many religions. You can think of others which must go, but what about older concepts which were often scandalous.
Should that broken cross known to many as the swastika, be done away with? It has some purposed and limited use once each year of a year when sham-worship service was held within the church centuries once each year, but most recently it has been the symbol of Nazi Germany and of Adolph Hitler and his crowd. It has been respected widely in other civilizations and the famous writer Rudyard Kipling saw to it that everything he wrote was published with a swastika design in or on it somewhere. Others use the ancient symbol as a "good luck" sign.
Think about it. What are these symbols of our religious feelings -images,in a sense? How do you think they differ from being God?
A.L.M. June 27, 2005 [c495wds]
