Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Lady Liberty -- Religion Gone Awry

Of all the silly Constitutional amendment ideas floating around, perhaps we should have one that prevents desecration to The Statue of Liberty.

So what have folks been doing? Perhaps piddling on the base of the statue or dressing Lady Liberty in scandolous clothes? Worse. A church in Memphis, TN remade the statue in their own image. You can see the results at this link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05liberty.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Yup, Lady Liberty is now holding a cross, the Ten Commandments and has the name Jehovah on her crown. For a moment I thought it was a joke. Then I realized it was for real.

This is so wrong on so many levels. Lady Liberty represents all of us, not just those of one particular religious group. Replace the cross with the star and crescent and put a Koran in herleft hand. Now what you do think of it? I can predict the reaction -- there would be hell to pay.

The pastor who commissioned this work stated, "This statue proves that Jesus Christ is Lord over America, he is Lord over Tennessee, he is Lord over Memphis." Jesus may indeed be lord of your heart and I respect that, but when you begin to assert he is my lord, you have gone across the line. Each of us makes this spiritual journey of our own volition. We all make the choices and accept the consequences. Some choose to follow Jesus' path, others follow in Muhammad or Buddha's footsteps. My religious forebears stood at the base of Sinai and received those stone tablets. I have no desire to see them exploited in such a way.

To alter a national symbol to raise your faith above all the others is unfathomable. And yet, here it is. So what do they have in mind for their next stunt?

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