Life, Liberty and The Pursuit

I enjoy bumper stickers.  Spending 60 hours each week looking at the world through a windshield brings a greater appreciation of any type of diversion.  Some are informative:  "My Child is an Honor Student" or "Baby on Board".  Others show support for a cause or candidate, with the remainder falling into the humor category.  Two of my personal favorites:  "Visualize Whirled Peas" and "Spay and Neuter Your Pets and Weird Friends".

Twenty years ago, I bought a VW van that had a bumper sticker prominently displayed.  One day someone followed me into the parking lot at work, got out of their car and struck up a conversation.  The young man was gay and much too happy to find out we worked for the same company.  Finally, my confusion got the better of me, so I steered the conversation to find out why we were having a conversation.  His reply "I'm a friend of Bill" did not clear things up.  The only Bill I could think of would not have befriended this man.  He then pointed out my bumper sticker.  It turns out the bumper sticker (and the "I'm a friend of Bill" remark) are signs used by members of Alcoholics Anonymous to identify each other.  The bumper sticker also indicated that I was probably a gay member of AA.  I removed the sticker that night to avoid the stigma of being thought of as a member of AA.

Last night I spotted a bumper sticker that said "Religious Liberty" followed by print too small to read.  Did the driver think we need more religious liberty?  Do our restrictive laws governing religion somehow keep him from exercising his own person religious expression?  I could not imagine what restriction on religious liberty, would be so intolerable, that a bumper sticker was necessary.

Within walking distance I can attend a Chinese Christian Church, a Korean Christian Church, a Spanish Christian Church and 5 different denominations of American Christian Churches.  Within the city I can attend more than 50 variations of Protestant Churches, several different Catholic Churches, as well as, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist services.  The variety is mind boggling.  And I nearly forgot the Mormons.

I can find churches that do not allow dancing and churches that feel dancing is an important part of worship.  I can find churches that frown on the consumption of alcohol and churches that own bars (in some cases, the same church).  I can find churches that welcome gay couples and churches that preach homosexuality as a deadly sin.  Many churches preach that sex is only allowed within marriage and only for the purpose of procreation, and I know (don't ask how) of a church that holds monthly orgies as an expression of their beliefs.  The only religious liberties I can think of which are restricted are the rights to have sex with children, commit rape or murder or sacrifice live animals or people.  You can even commit hate crimes, as long as you do it for the love of God.

Even these few restrictions can be gotten around if you're willing to limit the acts to ritual depictions.  Ritual polygamy, murder and cannibalism are carried out in churches all of the time, with no complaints.  If you can come up with a ritual depiction of pedophilia and somehow connect it to your religion, you're home free, as disturbing as that may sound.

The only time I hear someone complaining about their religious liberties, it turns out they are upset because their beliefs require society to force everyone else to comply with those beliefs.  Requiring school prayer, requiring the teaching of creationism in public schools, prohibiting abortion and prohibiting gay marriage are some of the popular choices.

Worship in whatever way you wish and exercise your personal religious liberty to whatever extent you wish, but don't try to take away my personal liberty in the process.  Don't require my tax dollars to teach your faith as science and I won't use your churches income to build new roads.  And if you aren't in favor of same sex marriages, then don't marry someone of the same sex.  Now if you'll excuse me, I need to sacrifice a beer and some hot wings.