Below The Beltway

Just so you know, it isn’t your job to go to Iraq and convert everyone to Christianity:
BAGHDAD, May 29 — The U.S. military suspended a Marine on Thursday for distributing coins quoting the Gospel to Sunni Muslims, an incident that has enraged Iraqis who view it as the latest example of American disrespect for Islam.
The […]

George W. Bush rewrites the Declaration of Independence:
“We need your message to reject this dictatorship of relativism and embrace a culture of justice and truth,” Bush said in brief remarks welcoming Benedict to the White House. “In a world where some see freedom as simply the right to do as they wish, we need […]

According to Michael Medved, there is one acceptable form of bigotry, the bigotry against those who don’t believe in a god:
“On one level, at least, the ongoing war on terror represents a furious battle of ideas and we face devastating handicaps if we attempt to beat something with nothing. Modern secularism rejects the notion that […]

The idea of reducing Thomas Jefferson to one quote is absurd, so here are a few of my favorites:
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own […]

America’s Third President was born 265 years ago today.
Since there isn’t anything to write about Jefferson that hasn’t already been said, it seems appropriate to let his words speak for themselves from the text of the two written documents that he was most proud of throughout his life.
First, from the Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom:
[…]

A high school student in California is suing his teacher for making allegedly “anti-Christian” remarks:
A student and his family have filed a federal lawsuit demanding that a popular European history teacher at California’s Capistrano Valley High School be fired for what they say were anti-Christian remarks he made in the classroom.
Chad Farnan, a 16-year-old sophomore, […]

Apparently, there is no end to the depths of irrationality that our friends in Saudi Arabia will stoop to:
Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.
In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage […]

In today’s New York Times, Roger Cohen points out what’s wrong with the vision of America that Mitt Romney projected in his speech last week:

Religion informed America’s birth. But its distancing from politics was decisive to the republic’s success. Indeed, the devastating European experience of religious war influenced the founders’ thinking. That is why I […]

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814

Every year around this time, there’s a story about some controversy involving an official government recognition of Christmas, or Hannukah. On one side are those who are offended by the use of taxpayer dollars to promote what are clearly religious holidays. On the other are those who look at those objections as yet another example […]