Posted by Tyler Bradley on January 09, 1997 at 11:04:21:
In Reply to: Madalyn Murray O'Hair Petition (?) posted by David Naughton on January 08, 1997 at 19:40:12:
Zealots of this sort are both harmful and necessary. Harmful in the sense that the thinking is easily transformed from benign to malignant cancer. Necessary in the sense that there are equally rabid groups on the opposite side of the issue who are just as dangerous
I do agree with Amanda and Pamela that there are Constitutional difficulties in banning free speech, especially over the airwaves. In that respect, she/they, whichever the case may be, is doomed to failure.
However, in areas where there is taxpayer funding or a captive general audience, religious issues are to be left out. It is one thing for a kid to carry a Bible for personal study into a public school, but a very different one when having OUR (not one exclusive group's) currency marked with that motto. An issue currently going on in my state of Ohio is the Governor's push, with some taxpayer dollars already spent, to make the State Motto read, "With God All Things Are Possible". This is reprehensible, and I feel fortunate to have a group such as the ACLU watching out for these hidden and insidious encroachments on public issues. We just do not live as Puritans or Shakers anymore.