Monday, September 21, 2015

Heretics

Back in the old days, the priesthood ordained the king, and monarchs ruled by "divine right" as God's choice.  Heretical rulers or those who offended the priests in some way were excommunicated.  No one pays any attention to what the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, or Billy Graham has to say about who should be elected to public office these days.  Cultural excommunication is a function of the news media. 

The media is trying to ostracize Dr. Carson at the moment for his remarks that Muslim Sharia law is not consistent with the U.S. Constitution.  So far, Ben Carson is holding his ground and refusing to retract his statements:

“I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country,” Carson said, referencing the Islamic law derived from the Koran and traditions of Islam. “Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

Carson said that the only exception he’d make would be if the Muslim running for office “publicly rejected all the tenants of Sharia and lived a life consistent with that.”



“Then I wouldn’t have any problem,” he said.

Some of us are old enough to remember when John Kennedy was elected president, becoming the first Catholic to sit in the White House.  Many expressed concern at the time that Kennedy might be controlled by the Vatican, which turned out, as far as we know, not to have been the case. 

I would probably vote for a truly libertarian atheist or agnostic over some people who call themselves Christians.  If the media were interested in anything other than controlling the narrative they would ask if the candidates thought it would be all right to elect a snake-handling fundamentalist or someone from the Westboro Baptist Church or anyone who did not believe in the separation of church and state as president. 

That's really the question that Carson is answering.  He quite reasonably doubts that most Muslims are capable of separating and compartmentalizing the constitutional duties and obligations of the presidency from their obligations to the tenets and requirements of Islam.

2 comments:

  1. Well, he's right of course. I suppose that is what is causing the outrage.
    Or maybe it is fake outrage to knock him out of the running.

    No matter. I'm a detached observer this time around.

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  2. Yes, the truth terrifies the Establishment. And they are almost all Establishment.

    ReplyDelete