[Vision2020] Trinity Festival protest

[Andreas Schou]

On 8/2/07, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  Doesn't freedom of religion trump simple dislike for the church or some of
> it's members?  If there are irregularities with how they were granted
> permits or something, then that should be looked into.  But why disturb
> their festival?  What is their political and economic agendas that these
> activists are protesting?
>
>  Granted, people have a right to protest as long as they keep it civil and
> follow the law.  It's just that I have never understood why people are so
> opposed to them.  Most of the objections I've heard have to do with zoning
> laws and permits for the NSA school.  That sounds like a problem with the
> authorities and not Christ Church.  There are lots of comments about their
> theology (Southern slavery, odd ideas about how they think a "biblical"
> society would work, etc), but so what?  They have every right to believe as
> they wish, whether or not I think the lot of them have been standing too
> long in the hot sun with no hat.
>
>  I don't agree theologically with them at all.  But who am I to try to tell
> them they can't expand themselves?

Paul --

Freedom of religion is a restriction enforced against the government,
not against private citizens, who have no authority whatsoever to
restrict anyone else's worship. Conversely, private citizens have a
right to freedom of speech: a right to believe any religion, or all
religions, to be harmful or idiotic or untrue. Just as Christ Church
would have the right to preach on the street outside an atheist
convention, whomever wishes has the right to speak to them -- or,
rather, about them.

It's more than a little unseemly that they have decided to wear the
Bible as though it were a bulletproof vest, disguising political
beliefs as though they were theological ones. The "Trinity Festival"
is nothing more what was previously known as the "History Conference"
-- merely a tissue-thin mask for yet another forum for blowhards to
explain to each other why it is desperately important that our country
be ruled by white men with beards.

-- ACS