Are you against civil marriage equality for same-sex couples because of your religious beliefs? Do you feel that the In God We Trust slogans placed in some states' public educational facilities are an unfair encroachment by the government and the conservative Christian community that lobbies for such articles?
The conservative Christian movement in this country is constantly decrying the death of American family values, whether this applies to the struggle for gay rights, teaching evolution or the constant debate over sexual education practices. This seems a giant effort to indoctrinate the general populace that does not follow the conservative Christian's theological concepts, or attend his or her churches.
How can this indoctrination be combated? First, children need to be instilled with strong moral convictions at home. If that isn't happening, making the government a buffer to instill a fear of God is unethical. This has nothing to do with people liking or disliking faith -- it has everything to do with families abandoning their responsibility to ethically and morally educate their own. The right wing has little to do with it -- it's mostly the fault of individual parents who are, as my mother would say, failing to raise their own to be "productive members of society." The schools do have an obligation to do character building -- not out of fear of God, but as a means of developing individuals who are able to interact in our society. The government does not recognize any religion or take any stance on God, so people have to learn these social mores in a way that is fundamentally non-religious. Discrimination against someone on the basis of color may be wrong to God, but more importantly, it is viewed as distasteful by society.
In Maryland at least, your faith may prohibit homosexuality, but it is repugnant to condemn homosexuals, discriminate against or harass them. There is an understanding that we all have different faith perspectives, but there are certain secular truths that cannot be dismissed. In areas where a church is the social center (the Deep South, the Midwest), separating religious from public acceptability is almost impossible because they are synonymous. Religious prohibition of homosexuality becomes social prohibition of it, etc.
Second, those who wish to protect the government from infringements of a particular faith must cease to be recognized as anti-faith. Suggesting as much is simply immature. There is nothing wrong with an open discussion of faith, but a city putting up a nativity scene is inappropriate. Some questions for the conservative Christian: why must a city engage in this? Are you going to be any less of a Christian during the Christmas season without such displays? Are you going to feel more suppressed if your religion is not given government favor? Why is the government's placement of such an article necessary to your faith? Those who demand government-sponsored religious symbols are concerned with social, not faith matters. No one can stop you from holding your own Christmas celebrations, but why do you need the government to explicitly favor your faith?
Answer these questions rather than immediately dismissing them because of some nameless, faceless atheist who is anti-you and your belief systems. To dismiss all attacks on the government display of religion as "c9 some atheist expressing his problem with God; why should I have to suffer for it?" is naive. As justified by the right's own hypersensitivity to perceived religious persecution, condemnation of an individual for his religious (or irreligious) beliefs is unethical in contemporary American society.
Disagreement does not equate antithesis. Being strong in my own faith does not necessitate my having to support government-sanctioned proselytizing. Try asking why a town green nativity scene is needed. And if you don't need it, then why does it offend you so that the government stays out of religion? Why do they have to acknowledge it at all? The greater morality of others? If that's the reason, that's none of your business, my business, or the government's business. They've got to find their own way in this world just like everyone else, and it is unethical for the government to endorse a particular brand of religion as the correct way to go, or conversely, as the wrong way to go.
--Matthew J. Viator is a senior composition major at the Peabody Conservatory.
