The Re-Emergence of Religion in Public Life...

 It's a balance long due: permitting the freedom of religious expression in our public institutions, as one of many voices represented in our pluralistic world today.  Taking God out of the closet or cupboard or wherever the law chose to stick him in allowing more freedoms for the those who do not believe God has a place, still, in our land.  That's where the Federal government overreached.

In trying to preference the non-religious  -- in the same manner the federal government tried to gender and racial preference in the last century -- they overreached...

Denying the religious in the public square -- when legally carried to the extreme -- is like preferencing women over men, dark skin over light skin, as we have seen individuals abused in recent days in the name of righting old wrongs.  It's why, the wealthy children of privileged African-American students can get admission preferences to (formerly) elite universities over second-generation students of European immigrants who outperform them in scholastic metrics...

It's why a well qualified man can be passed over for a job promotion in favor of a woman, struggling to balance family and career, and not performing at the same level as an unencumbered single man serving but one master, whose performance on the job simply surpasses hers, under the outlined metrics measured by...

Instead of comparing, and contrasting, individuals, we have allowed the Federal government -- legally -- to create  a masterful scheme of categories and sub-categories, definitions that don't work any more in the real world (ask a "mixed" individual how they choose to identify...), yet we struggle on against the tide believing that one day these legal discriminations will help to "balance" society.

The same happened with religion.

By shunning believers as outcasts in the public square, we have not eliminated them.  We have simply denied what happens in private -- that people in America still choose to use religious beliefs to shape their public and private behaviors and values.

By attempting to overbalance -- instead of allowing more federalism into the Federal government, we tried as a nation to legally force "one size fits all" cultural beliefs onto our real-life values in terms of sex differences, equal opportunity for all races, and the worth of religious thinking.

Historically, some knew this would never work, not in a country with America's history of religious pluralism.  Our nation was founded on that respect.

The tide is indeed turning... take heart, non-believers.  You still have the First Amendment and can roundly mock believers, in whatever voice you choose to use.  But now, the religious will also have a voice in the values in their children's public schools, in the culture of local areas, and  in how tax dollars are spent.

The newcomers to this nation, many citizens who worship and rely on faith values over commercialized instincts in business and relationships, will help to shape our nation going forward.  Don't be afraid. Achieving a better balance between all regions of the country can only make us stronger as a whole...

God Bless America.  Or not.

Our nation today subsumes the historical values of many cultures -- including religious ones -- as we move forward with new technologies in building new communities in new economies.

Let Freedom Ring...

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 *  Happy Sunday, everyone.  Religious and non-religious, believers and non-believers alike... It's long past time to practice true tolerance and acceptance in our shared culture.

"Well I know Jesus, and I talk to God, and I remember this from when I was young... Faith, Hope and Love are some good things He gave us, and the greatest is LOVE."

** If you believe that Science negated God, as many no doubt do, believing the two cannot co-exist, I invite you to Google "Gregor Mendel".  Or Albert Einstein.  Marie Curie? Or other scientists who professed religious faiths, and -- in the case of Mendel -- whose callings in scholastic religious life enabled them to devote time and study in their scientific pursuits.  Those monks... they had the time to devote, and often chose wisely, and advanced our civilizations downline.  No myth!