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  From the Editor

When 'No Win' Wins

How do we separate church and state? We still debate our forefathers’ intent. Were they trying to keep religion out of politics or politics out of religion? The simple answer seems to be "both." Thomas Jefferson declared as much when he said that legislatures should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

We continue to see efforts that blur the line between church and state, or seek to clarify it to advantage. Prayers are not allowed in schools. Nativity scenes are banned from courthouse lawns. The ACLU fights to remove the Ten Commandments from courtrooms. After years of argument, parochial schools get government funds for busing. And so it goes.

The magnificent revival of patriotism and religion after September 11 prompted the headline in a syndicated newspaper article: "Who do we worship? God or the Flag?"

I don’t see any of these issues as monumental. I do see, as you do, the horrible impact of what happens when religion takes over government as it has in many Islamic countries. Example: a woman is touched by a man, not of her family; the family must execute her. Example: A Taliban governor-general goes to the mosque and lashes those who arrive late. Example: converts to Christianity are executed without trial.

Almost as horrible as the atrocities is damage by Islamic clerics to their own culture. Pakistani schools teach only the Qu’ran . . . no science, no language. Women are not allowed to be educated or have careers. This is the same Islamic society that once was considered by historians equal or better than the West’s Renaissance.

A recent column by William Pfaff of the Los Angeles Times comments, "The sophistication of Arab mathematics, astronomy, governmental administration, and military organization was very great in the Middle Ages."

Pfaff credits Islamic society for preserving Greek philosophy and transmitting it to the West, but failing to practice it.

What went wrong? Pfaff believes that Islamic state and religion have never fully separated, discouraging intellectualism and individual enterprise. A technologically and philosophically backward society has resulted.

We continue to have forces that favor religion over government or government over religion. History has multiple examples of the tyranny when either force prevails in total. Nazism and Communism when government is in absolute control. Religious oppression when Islam controls. Just hope neither side wins.

—JBP

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