I need/want your opinion in These titles mean nothing.
- June 7, 2022, 9:20 p.m.
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- Public
For the last five years or perhaps longer, every summer the Bible is read on our county courthouse lawn. It takes a whole weekend. It gives me the creeps. Every year I want to protest it. But I never do. I got myself all fired up yesterday thinking I would either write a letter to the local paper or present myself at a county supervisors’ meeting to share my opinion.
My opinion??
I don’t think it should be done on public land. Our county has dozens of churches, and a whole shitload of real estate. If people want to gather to read the Bible they can do it on their own land. I was going to suggest that churches going together to do it might add to the ecumenical spirit of local religion. I was also going to say reading the Bible on church owned property would also prevent any possible thought that the Government was supporting the religion. Bad idea, you know? If you don’t know it, then that’s too bad.
I decided today that I won’t to it. I’ll just stew privately - well except for what I wrote here. I’m too sensitive to want to draw that much attention to myself.
Damn it, though. I’m right and they’re wrong.
I thought I might try to write a poem about it. Perhaps have God watching from his tall steeples and perhaps blushing.
Wouldn’t happen in Canada.
NorthernSeeker ⋅ June 07, 2022
A letter to the Editor? A petition? I get where you are coming from. It's sure to get nasty really quickly.
A Pedestrian Wandering ⋅ June 07, 2022
I suspect reading the Bible in a public place would be considered freedom of speech, even if it is the Bible. If, concurrently, one was to read the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Mao's Little Red Book, the Koran or the Tao Te Ching right next to the Bible reader, that would also be considered freedom of speech. Hurray for America!
Just Annie ⋅ June 08, 2022
I understand your reluctance. And I wouldn't have the nerve to protest, either, but you are right and they are wrong. Even a letter to the editor might end up with death threats for you. To be fair, if people can read the Bible on the courthouse square, any and all other religious texts should be able to be read there, too. That won't happen, of course.
woman in the moon Just Annie ⋅ June 08, 2022
maybe that's what I should be trying to do - organize a reading of the Koran.
Beret woman in the moon ⋅ June 11, 2022
Exactly! Or the Torah. All these people wanting "prayer" only believe there is one type of prayer. How would they feel if the Koran or Torah was read in public schools?
Florentine ⋅ June 08, 2022
YIKES. Technically, courthouses themselves are nonpublic forums--you can't just do/say whatever you want in them. But courthouse grounds and the sidewalk in front of the courthouse may not hold the same boundaries.
So while reading the bible on the courthouse lawn is probably legal, and not a misuse of public property, it doesn't make it feel any less... yucky.
thesunnyabyss ⋅ June 08, 2022
It definitely wouldn't happen in Quebec.
noko ⋅ June 08, 2022
With our current Supreme court, staying quiet is probably your best bet. It is a kind of public aggression. It is going on in India too, except there it is Hinduism. I don't think fundamentalism is good for Democracy in any of its forms.
ConnieK noko ⋅ June 09, 2022
This.
ConnieK ⋅ June 09, 2022
I assume your town is small. I believe in separation of church & state and am unimpressed by posturing, which is what this is. I live in a conservative state, too.
Beret ⋅ June 11, 2022
The courthouse is public property, right? It's separation of church and state and shouldn't be allowed there.
woman in the moon Beret ⋅ June 11, 2022
Yup, that's what I think.