It is about the separation of Church and State...

[Skidmore]

I found this on the hard drive of my home computer. It was an e-mail I sent to Ariana Huffington in 2001 in response to an article she wrote for Salon. Don't have a copy of the article though. I don't know if she ever read the e-mail. Just wanted to share.

Here goes:

Dear Ms. Huffington,

I just read your article of March 13, 2001, on Salon.com. While I agree with you that Christians are not singularly worthy or capable of doing good works, I do respectfully disagree with your contention that this argument is not about the separation of church and state. It is also about the separation of church and state.

From 1976 to 1986, I lived in Iran. The rhetoric spewing out of the right and the social policies outlined by the Bush administration are not a whole lot different then the propaganda or the rationale for them espoused by Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers. His faction virtually destroyed their country. Twenty some years later, Iranians are still trying to rebuild their nation. This talk of faith-based initiatives and government defined morality gives me the willies. In Iran, the government began to legislate everything from the way you dressed to the who could work and who could be educated. All of this came to the Iranian citizenry complete with fixed elections. As a wife of an Iranian, I was in a category called foreign national and was eligible to vote in the referendum for form of government there. The ballots were color coded--green for an Islamic republic and red for a no vote. No other option for form of government was offered as an alternative. After I placed my red ballot in the box at the polling place and was walking away with my now ex-husband, a revolutionary guard in fatigues carryng a machine gun ran up to me with my ballot in hand. He asked my husband if I knew I had voted incorrectly. I speak fluent Farsi, To his surprise, I addressed him myself, telling him that I had voted the way I intended to vote, requested that he place my ballot back in the box, and stood there until he did so. I'm sure it was removed later. I knew others who placed "No" votes in that election, but the no's were not reported. When we got home, my ex proceeded to let me know that if he had known how I was going to vote, he would have forbidden me to go to the polls at all since my dissenting vote had embarrassed his family in the community. My response to him was that Iran then had not truly won freedom for its people but had paid dearly for another form of tyranny by sacrificing the lives of its youth. Today, Iran is realizing this. America does not understand what it stands to lose by going down the path that raw power has wrested for itself. You don't really appreciate freedom until you are forced to live without it.

Our forefathers understood the power of religious institutions and the fact that, in practice, institutionalized religions deal in black and white/right and wrong based on very specific interpretations of those constructs. We will remain free only when we realize that the liberty we enjoy has been preserved through our society's historical willingness to steer away from the potential for tyranny by an one religious group. I believe that good and moral people can do good and moral works in society at-large without couching them in the trappings of religion. Religious practice should remain a personal choice. There are many paths to truth, but only one to freedom. True freedom cannot exist in a climate of intolerance for other viewpoints. While I respect all people's right to practice their faith of choice, it is my belief that no one faith is more deserving than another. May the Power of your choice preserve our freedom and our nation.

My Name here.


Note not in e-mail, but for the benefit of DU readers.
BTW, I voted in that referendum because foreign wives were told that they could not leave the country to go to their homelands if the stamp for participation in the referendum was not in their national identity card booklet (perhaps a model for RealID?).

[NJ Democrats]

1. Very Interesting

I enjoyed this very much. It truly shows that people get more oppressed a lot of times when they want freedom instead.

[NMMNG]

2. Thank you for sharing this Skidmore

We still have separation of Church and State in this nation...but barely. The lines are blurred in some instances and in some areas. There are some who would have everyone following the dictates of the Christian God, and have Him (or their]\ version of Him) be the ruler of the USA.

That would be tragic.