What Debra Meador read disturbed her. It didn't seem right that schoolchildren were once barred from holding prayer groups after class. Or that the Ten Commandments couldn't be displayed in a government building.
So at 34, the human relations specialist from Lynchburg made good on a longtime interest by enrolling in law school. But unlike most prospective lawyers, she applied to only one place.
"I wanted to take it in a Christian setting," said Meador, a member of the inaugural law class at Liberty University, a Baptist college founded here in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. "I don't believe anyone could be neutral. We're willing to tell you what we believe and to follow that."
I wonder if the first classes teach anything about the, you know, actual constitution and the concerns of many of the founding fathers about the establishment of a state religion? Unlikely, since the next Kozmik Battle between Good and Evil will be to see who wins, Pat or Jerry. Make that Evil v. Evil, the archangel Gabriel presiding.
By the Hairy Thunderer, it's getting weird out there.
posted by Jo Fish on 11.22.04 at 10:16 AM
Comments:
Not that we're against prayer. We just don't think the government should be leading the prayer.
Right-wingers don't seem to get this distinction, and we could do a better job in drawing it.
posted by: Tony Goins on 11.22.04 at 10:34 AM [permalink]
hanging from a rotten apple tree is too good for the person who invented god.
posted by: pickles on 11.22.04 at 12:04 PM [permalink]
I can just imagine the professor of Constitutional Law at Falwell Law discussing the First Amendment religion clauses: "Supreme Court, tear down that wall of separation of church (but not mosque or temple) and state."
Keep in mind that the Bill of Rights when enacted only applied to restrict the federal government and not the states. In fact, many of the original 13 states did have established religions, including my state of Massachusetts which did not do away with its established church until the late 1830s. The 14th Amendment was eventually construed so that most of the Bill of Rights applied to the states as well.
Maybe it is time for atheists to proselytize.
posted by: Shag from Brookline on 11.22.04 at 01:42 PM [permalink]
I'm waiting for the Jesus freaks to say, we're just kidding, we're only acting this fucked up. But then I realize I AM awake and LIVING the nightmare.
One news story this morning deakt with the trade deficit. The one American commodity which provided a trade surplus for us (agriculture) was a 0 balance this year. Look for deficits next year, a permanent trend. I wonder if the libertarian and "eocnomic conservatives" who voted for the PTL gang, have considered that the same ones who make our fiscal policy, believe that a 2000 year old syrian jew is going to appear (alive and in the flesh) to punish the fundies enemies and take those righteous one's (alive in the flesh) to a paradise dimension where the only physical laws that count(conservation of mass and energy) can be miracled away with the wave of a magic wand.wow
posted by: Marcus B. Nestor on 11.23.04 at 10:38 AM [permalink]
If you really want to get a sense as to how strange these guys are, consider this: Pat Robertson not only believed that Jesus would show up in Jerusalem, but also was trying to figure out whether or not the light given off by Christ (apparently Jesus doubles as a heat lamp) would be too much for the cameras, and whether or not filters would be needed to interview Jesus on camera.
posted by: suburban refugee on 11.23.04 at 12:18 PM [permalink]
the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli initiated by George Washington and signed into law by John Adams proclaims: The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion.
posted by: enlightened methodist on 11.23.04 at 12:35 PM [permalink]
Nice find enlightened methodist!
USA founded on reason, not religion.
