First up from The God Machine this week is a story about a surprisingly heated fight on Capitol Hill over generic religious references on flags temporarily flown over Congress.
The acting architect of the Capitol cleared the way Thursday for the certificates that accompany flags flown over the building to include the word “God,” reversing policy on an issue that was becoming the latest touchstone in the nation’s culture wars.
“When one of our services or policies doesn’t effectively serve members of Congress or the American public, it needs to be changed immediately,” architect Stephen Ayers said in a statement. “I appreciate the Congress bringing this important issue to my attention.”
Apparently, a young man in Ohio asked his congressman to fly a flag over the Capitol to honor his grandfather for his “love of God, country and family.” These requests are quite common; lawmakers fly specific flags all the time.
Because the architect’s office has a policy against flags with “political and/or religious expressions,” the request was denied.
The response was predictable. Congressional Republicans, led by Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), threw a fit, and the policy was changed, with Speaker Pelosi’s blessing.
“We won a great victory for American traditions, religious freedoms and freedom of expression,” Turner said in a statement.
And the republic lives to see another day.
Other news from The God Machine this week:
* Air America Radio will now feature a weekly atheism program, called, “FreeThought Radio.” Fox News flipped out upon hearing the news, running multiple segments asking whether AAR is waging a “war against God,” as part of “the new war on religion.” (When radio networks feature religious programs, does Fox News characterize it as a “war against non-believers”?)
* One has to assume Tim LaHaye was not amused: “In the wildly popular ‘Left Behind’ series of evangelical Christian novels, the Antichrist takes the form of the secretary general of the United Nations, sets up an abortion-promoting world government and becomes the Global Community Supreme Potentate. Last night, the National Association of Evangelicals met for dinner at the Sheraton in Crystal City. The keynote speaker? Why, the Antichrist himself. Actually, the NAE, the umbrella group for the nation’s evangelical denominations, brought in the real U.N. secretary general, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, not his fictional satanic equivalent, Nicolae Carpathia of Romania. But for the Rev. Richard Cizik, the NAE official who invited Ban, it was just about as daring. Evangelical Christians regard the United Nations’ blue helmets with about as much enthusiasm as Satan’s red horns.”
* In a city near Dallas, an acadia tree has a growing spittlebug nest, which some locals believe appears to be “supernatural ice.” It’s causing quite a stir: “People begin arriving as early as 7 a.m., mostly from neighboring border towns, to see the ‘ice’ first-hand. They snap pictures and gaze in awe. They kneel before it and pray. They stand, patiently extending their open palms or clutching Styrofoam cups with hopes of getting some drops of ‘holy water.'”
* And the Ohio legislature is about to have sectarian prayers open its sessions for the first time: “Ohio’s House speaker will ignore a decade-old guideline that prayers given by visiting clergy before legislative sessions be nonsectarian and non-denominational, although he asks that prayers not mention specific legislation or advocate certain positions. House Speaker Jon Husted, a Republican from Kettering, spent a summer mulling over the prayer policy after a prayer by a visiting clergy member in May caused two Democrats to walk off the chamber floor. The prayer invoked Jesus’ name, spoke favorably of church-sponsored schools and referenced pending legislation clamping down on strip-club operations.” The legality of the new policy is open to debate, which tends to happen when official government bodies get in the business of promoting semi-official prayers.