First up from the God Machine is a follow-up to last week’s item about the College of William and Mary, one of the nation’s oldest public universities, deciding to remove an 18-inch brass cross that had been displayed on the altar of an on-campus chapel. As we talked about, the public university wanted to make the chapel less faith-specific, so that all religious students in a diverse student population would feel equally welcome.
This week, a lawsuit was filed. The reasoning may seem like a joke, but it’s serious.
A graduate of the College of William and Mary’s law school has sued to demand that a brass cross be returned to permanent display on the altar of the campus chapel.
George R. Leach contends that the removal of the cross restricts the practice of religion, violating the First Amendment because governments can’t prohibit individuals from practicing religion. […]
The school cannot comment on pending litigation, William and Mary spokesman Brian Whitson told the Associated Press on Feb. 13.
It seems to an increasingly common approach to religious liberty for Christian conservatives. In order to practice their religion, the argument goes, Christian conservatives need special treatment and endorsement from a secular government. Leach’s lawsuit effectively argues that he cannot exercise his religion unless William and Mary promotes a Christian cross at a public school’s chapel.
The lawsuit isn’t likely to work, butt I suspect the religious right will endorse the litigation enthusiastically.
And speaking of the religious right, our next item involves a leading Christian right group taking anti-gay bigot to task. Sort of.
As you may have heard, former NBA star Tim Hardaway was asked on a Miami radio station this week about a former teammate who acknowledged being gay. “You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people,” he said in the interview. “I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.”
Reader M.W. noted that Concerned Women for America, a leading anti-gay religious right group, condemned Hardaway’s comments. That’s the good news. The bad news was CWA’s motivation.
“Hardaway’s comments are both unfortunate and inappropriate,” said Matt Barber, the policy director for Concerned Women of America. “They provide political fodder for those who wish to paint all opposition to the homosexual lifestyle as being rooted in ‘hate.'”
But Barber then fires off his own anti-gay broadside: “It’s perfectly natural for people to be repelled by disordered sexual behaviors that are both unnatural, and immoral.” […]
[Barber] added that gay activists are at least partly to blame.
“Hardaway’s comments only serve to foment misperceptions of widespread homosexual ‘victimhood’ which the homosexual lobby has craftily manufactured,” said Barber in a statement.
If I’m understanding this properly, I think Concerned Women of America believes Hardaway’s anti-gay bigotry was bad, because it might discourage others from embracing anti-gay bigotry.
And, finally this week, there’s an odd religious story out of Colorado, where members of Denver’s Regional Transportation District are asked to take an oath of office. Specifically, the oath reads, “I do solemnly swear by the ever-living God…that I will faithfully perform the duties of the office of director of the Regional Transportation District to which I have been elected/appointed.”
An employee of RTD was uncomfortable with the oath, and the department decided to make the oath optional. Problem solved, right?
Wrong. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family is outraged.
“Without a reference to God, an oath is practically worthless,” harrumphed Tom Minnery, senior vice president of government and public policy at Focus on the Family. […]
Actually, compelling someone to swear an oath that they don’t believe in is what makes the oath worthless. We do not honor religious liberty by coercing people to make professions of faith they do not sincerely hold to be true. The Denver Regional Transportation District understands this, as its recent action shows. Why can’t Focus on the Family?
Good question.