Spain becoming "militantly secular"
Whenever I hear people use the word "militant" with secularism or atheism, I have to say I'm more than a bit offended. That doesn't amount to much, aside from my judgment of their standards. Let's compare two recent examples, and you can decide if you think my judgment is correct. The first:
Ok. Public school classroom walls cannot have overtly religious and sectarian icons displayed. The problem? It's an "attack" on an cultural symbol.In an unprecedented decision here, a judge ruled in November that the public school must remove the crucifixes from classroom walls, saying they violated the “nonconfessional” nature of the Spanish state.
Although the Roman Catholic Church was not named in the suit, it criticized the ruling as an “unjust” attack on a historical and cultural symbol — and a sign of the Spanish state’s increasingly militant secularism.
Well, it's not an attack, since it's hardly banning the material from the entirety of Spain. It's a public school. Private Catholic schools can have pictures of the Pope up above every fucking student's chair if they way -- public schools are non-denominational. Because it would be an attack on those who do not subscribe to Catholicism or Christianity. If you're so offended by this, imagine the other people who have to put up with your bullshit all the time, when they shouldn't have to. You're pressing for preferential treatment, and Spain is just saying "No, you can't have it."
I mean it's not like you had four decades of being an official state religion, under that of a dictator....
But, this is too militant for the Catholic Church. Ok. The second example.
Israel launched a bunch of missiles into populated areas of Gaza.At least 220 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed in an Israeli aerial bombardment on Hamas security installations.
Israel launched air attacks across the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday, threatening that further operations would be carried out. Emergency services said that at least 700 people had been wounded.
Now, I hate to be so simplistic about this, but there's not much to complicate it. To be "militant," well, you kind of need a fucking MILITARY. Guns, bombs, troops, the whole works aren't required but they sure make for nice images.
Having a court deliberate on a case and then say "No, sorry, these people cannot do this because it breaks the secularism of the government" is not being militant. If they broke into the homes of all Catholics in the country, took away their crucifixes by gun point, shot the ones that resisted, you'd have a point in calling them a bit militant in doing that.
I can't stand it when people overreact to the simple defense of secularism or the promotion of atheism. It trivializes all these other conflicts that actually are military in nature. The ones that cause the death of civilians, war crimes, and possible genocide every now and then.
It's cute of you to think that atheists and those promoting secularism are such dangers, but trust me, there's not going to be any bombings done by us. If there's a war that is going to erupt over secularism, it's not going to be started by us.
2 comments:
According to m-w.com, the definition of "militant" can also mean (and usually does mean) "aggressive". This legislation in Spain is militant because it is an overt effort to remove religion from gov't run operations. It's aggressive and militant because it is being done OVERTLY (in the open) as opposed to COVERTLY (sneakily, like many other countries, including the US).
Here in the US, we pass laws that basically say "In order to not offend people, a gov't employee can't say a prayer in school." We disguise this restriction in the form of PC-ness. That's sneakier than saying "Hey you, no religion in schools or we'll toss you in jail" which is essentially what Spain is doing.
"This legislation in Spain is militant because it is an overt effort to remove religion from gov't run operations."
Yes, it's an overt saying of "It is illegal to do this." That's the point with a secular government: the publicly own property cannot favor the religions of one over the other or all.
"That's sneakier than saying "Hey you, no religion in schools or we'll toss you in jail" which is essentially what Spain is doing."
You can phrase the exact same thing about the US laws, too. Hardly sneaky.
It's simply the law. It's illegal on government property to show religious displays of sectarian nature and to only allow that one. You do allow the religious displays, you get the situation in Washington where you have to allow all religious displays, no matter their content.
And if books and government rulings are aggressive, what the hell are guns and bombs then?
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