By Robert Evans Burnette / Chronicle columnist
August 06, 2008 02:30 pm
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Religious groups of every denomination come together to decry our treatment of terrorists who have dedicated their very lives to the destruction of America. They stand upon their own religious values to implore our government to treat terrorists with kindness. But, in Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, our government pays for chaplains to minister to the spiritual needs of Muslims suspected of being terrorists. In Alabama, that same government prohibits a public display of the Ten Commandments in order to avoid even the same appearance of governmental support for religion.
Activists complain that prisoners taken on the field of battle are being denied the protections of a Geneva Convention to which they are not entitled. Meanwhile, in Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, our government provides prayer mats for inmates suspected of being terrorists. In Utah, a city attorney ordered the word "God" removed from signs that read "God Bless America," leaving only the words, "Bless America." Blessed by whom?
Concerned Americans petition their government to extend the rights that we died for to radicals from across the face of this earth who want only to exterminate us. While in Camp Delta at Guntanamo Bay, Cuba, our government paints arrows on the floors so that Muslims suspected of being terrorists will know they are facing Mecca when they pray. A federal court representing that same government declared the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because it contains the words "under God."
Well-meaning people of faith dedicate themselves to a policy of love and forgiveness to those who have been taught that their only route to paradise is to kill infidels. In Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, our government notifies inmates suspected of being terrorists of the appropriate hours to face Mecca, kneel on their prayer mats and pray five times a day. That same government bans even voluntary prayers at school graduation ceremonies because government is prohibited from supporting religion.
Separation of church and state, words that appear nowhere in our Constitution, is then twisted to mean that in order to comply with that fiction, the government must actually oppose every aspect of every religion. In Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, our government maintains two separate menus: one of standard Army food for our troops, the other to meet the special dietary needs of Muslim inmates suspected of being terrorists.
It should be obvious those thinking people that "equal treatment under the law," words that are actually written in that document, should require a more even-handed approach to the admonition "make no religion nor prohibit the free exercise thereof." Instead of giving thanks for all those vigilant watchdogs, taking it upon themselves to protect America from the evils of organized religion, maybe you should be asking yourselves, is it every religion they fear, or is it only yours?
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Robert Evans Burnette is a Crossville Chronicle columnist. His column appears on Wednesdays.
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