3.28.2003

Co-opting God

The House and Senate have passed a resolution making March 17, the day the war began, a day of prayer and fasting. This is bad: it violates the separation of church and state, it messes up St. Patrick's Day for millions, and enlists God's name in a war opposed by the pope and nearly every other religious leader. The resolution, passed 346-49, says we should use the day of prayer "to seek guidance from God to achieve a greater understanding of our own failings and to learn how we can do better in our everyday activities, and to gain resolve in meeting the challenges that confront our nation." I'm all for humility and prayer, but may I suggest we initiate such a day BEFORE we nuke a mostly defenseless country to high heaven? One dissenter, Dennis Kucinich, said the resolution "may be seen by some as an attempt to inject religion into this war at a time when some of America's enemies abroad are asserting that this indeed is a war about religion."

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