First up from this week’s God machine is news that should get Bill O’Reilly and the Fox News gang very excited: a war on Easter. (thanks to reader M.C. for the tip)
The Easter Bunny hopped into St. Paul (Minn.) City Hall, but was quickly bounced out Wednesday.
A sign with some Easter decorations in the lobby was removed out of concern it may have been considered offensive for non-Christians…. The display — a cloth bunny, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words “Happy Easter” — were put up by a City Council secretary. They weren’t purchased with city money.
St. Paul’s Human Rights Director Tyrone Terrill went to the office and said he suggested the signs be removed.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman joked about it, saying that the effort was well-intentioned but probably unnecessary. “Try not to engage in the practice of religion in City Hall, I mean, that’s appropriate, but there’s, you know, kicking the bunnies out of City Hall is going a little too far,” Coleman said.
Terrill later apologized and said he never wanted to get rid of the Easter Bunny. A few religious right activists still want to raise a fuss.
When the Catholic League heard about the decorations being taken down, it wanted to get a message to Terrill by sending him a full-size Easter Bunny costume.
“This is a mania in this country, and it’s being led by a tiny minority of influential people who think they are doing good but in fact, they remind me of the Taliban,” said Bill Donohue, the Catholic League’s president.
So, Donohue, who wants to mix religion and government more, thinks religious neutrality is like the Taliban. What an odd man.
Next up from the God machine is a story about a veteran of the war on terror, his tragic death, and his vacant slot on a memorial wall.
Nevada National Guard Sgt. Patrick Stewart gave his life for his country when the Chinook helicopter he was in was shot down in Afghanistan in September.
But those wishing to honor Stewart, who should have his name on the memorial wall at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley, would have a difficult time doing so.
The space reserved for Stewart is vacant. Stewart was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which is not recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Stewart’s widow, Roberta, said she would wait until her family’s religion — and its five-pointed star enclosed in a circle, with one point facing skyward — is recognized for use on memorials before having Stewart’s plaque installed.
“It’s completely blank,” Roberta Stewart said, pointing to her husband’s place on the memorial.
As the AP explained, Patrick Stewart and four other National Guard members died in September when their Chinook helicopter was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade as they returned to their base for refueling. They had finished dropping off troops. He was posthumously awarded the Air Medal, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Nevada Distinguished Service Medal and the Combat Action Badge.
Stewart insists that the government’s policy is discrimination, and it’s hard to disagree. “I had no idea that they would [refuse] our veterans this right that they go to fight for,” she said. “What religion we are doesn’t matter. It’s like denying who my husband is.”
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and its National Cemetery Administration apparently have 30 approved “emblems of belief,” and the Wiccan star isn’t on the list. (A symbol exists for atheists.)
To their credit, some key officials have come to Stewart’s aid. U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons (R) supports her application to include the Wiccan star on the Veterans Affairs’ list, as does her husband’s battalion commander, Lt. Col. Robert Harrington, who said the nation’s soldiers are “from every walk of life and every faith. We are all accepted in our community.”
An application seeking recognition of the Wiccan religion, and the use of the pentacle as an emblem of belief on memorials in veterans’ cemeteries, is working its way through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And in England, by way of Tristero, we find my very favorite archbishop with an important message about modern science.
The archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the world’s Anglicans, says he is opposed to teaching creationism in schools. “And that’s different … discussing, teaching about what creation means,” Archbishop Rowan Williams said in an interview published Tuesday in The Guardian newspaper.
“For that matter, it’s not even the same as saying that Darwinism is — is the only thing that ought to be taught. My worry is creationism can end up reducing the doctrine of creation rather than enhancing it,” said Williams, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Williams described creationism as “a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory like other theories.”
Good for him.