Health & Fitness
Missouri's "Right to Pray" Amendment a Failure in Self Government
The last few years have been a little scary for those who value reason and freethinking, but how close are we to a resurgence of Dark Ages dogmatism?
As many in every State of our Union now know, Missouri voters made us the new Arkansas of the 21st Century. Amendment 2, and its children's book-like ballot language passed 83% to 17%. As I mentioned to my wife that evening, I have never been this happy to be in such a minority since our "war of choice" in Iraq.
Regardless, the law is so full of holes, it will never stand in the courts, so I'm not worried about it lasting long. However, this whole ordeal did remind me of something I read by the 19th Century freethinker, Robert Ingersoll when he warned Americans of the following:
"If God is allowed in the Constitution, man must abdicate. There is no room for both. If the people of the great Republic become superstitious enough and ignorant enough to put God in the Constitution of the United States, the experiment of self-government will have failed, and the great and splendid declaration that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" will have been denied, and in its place will be found this: All power comes from God; priests are his agents, the people are their slaves."
This Amendment obviously does not do any of that. Until then, our democracy is still safe from a resurgence of Dark Ages dogmatism.
