Sorry, God. You're not on the guest list (Independent UK)

[marmar]

Joan Smith: Sorry, God. You're not on the guest list
This is the high point of a fantastic week for secularism

Published: 25 March 2007

When the leaders of 27 countries meet in Berlin today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the EU, there will be one significant absence. To the annoyance of many Poles, who have what is arguably the most crackpot right-wing government in Europe, God has not been invited to the party. Neither Christianity nor the deity feature in the declaration which Europe's leaders will sign to mark the occasion, signalling the high point of what has been a fantastic week for secularism.

I would think that, you might say, given that one of the jobs I most fancy is poster-girl for a strictly rational approach to human affairs. But recent events show that it isn't just sceptics who are worried by the inroads which other people's imaginary friends have been making in secular states. The politician behind the decision to exclude any reference to religion from the Berlin declaration is the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a pastor's daughter, who recognises the crucial importance for most modern societies of a separation between church and state - and of not providing ammunition to critics who accuse the EU of being a Christian club.

In this country, in a blow to the Islamophobia industry which has tried to silence critics of Islam through strident accusations of racism, the Education Secretary Alan Johnson issued guidelines which will allow schools to ban paranoid forms of religious dress, including the mask, or "niqab", worn by some Muslim girls. I'm sure this will have wide public support, because the last thing most people want is a Talibanisation of relations between men and women in the UK.

At the same time, some of the country's most senior Anglican prelates were roundly defeated in the House of Lords when they made the idiotic error of supporting the Catholic Church in its attempt to discriminate against gay couples who want to use its state-funded adoption agencies. "What do we want? Discrimination! When do we want it? Now!" has never seemed to me a persuasive platform for any religion to fight on, especially when the public has warmed to gay weddings such as that of the singer Sir Elton John (who, by the way, is celebrating his 60th birthday with an eloquent blast against gay-bashing worldwide). ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/joan_smith/article2390890.ece

[Eric J in MN]

1. Wow, a big US newspaper wouldn't have printed a...

....reference to God as "other people's imaginary friends"

(unlike the Independent UK)

[Vidar]

2. Good for Merkel. Keep religion out of government.

[Briar]

3. Unfortunately

the Guardian today quoted Merkel as "stating that as a Christian Democrat she believed that Europe's culture was rooted in "Christian-Jewish" traditions." This wasn't quite as extreme in its exclusivity as the Pope's sourly party-spoiling statement that Europe's moral, cultural, and historical values had been forged by Christianity, but it is bad enough and clearly discriminates against the third, nearly identical for goodness' sake, Abrahamic faith. As for those of us who value modern Europe's secular traditions and attempts to put religious persecution behind us, it's deeply depressing.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,2042886,00.html)

[ShortnFiery]

4. No, specific faiths should be KEPT SEPARATE from matters of state.

As it should be. Albeit I'm a practicing liberal Catholic, I say from the bottom of my heart, "May God Bless Secular Europe." Based on my faith in Jesus, I believe he'd also want matters of state to remain separate from that of practices of religion.

When considering The Pope, never forget that nasty Inquisition. Popes are human and when they become "full of pride" its time to stop listening to them. We've had some "less than laudable" Popes in the past and I regret that this is one who's felt the lure of Power too much. :(

Nope, we could learn a lot from Europe: The Separation of Church and State. No Exceptions!!!

[stormymonday]

5. Much of Europe's culture for good or ill does come from Christianity

so Merkel (who is actually a Protestant) was stating the simple truth. Pretending otherwise is to deny the reality of history and is in some ways almost as dangerous and divisive as ignoring the contributions of other cultures and religions. If your were a Polish and had seen your country overrun by foreign powers and divided so many times in the past you might also understand that, much like the Irish, their Catholicism is tied up with their struggle to preserve their identity. It is also as well to remember that the Enlightenment and modern secular free thinking, which the author of the Independent article so much admires, had some of its origins in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. Indeed most of Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke or Kant believed in the existence of God, something many of their admirers in the the modern world have conveniently managed to forget.