Last Friday, the city manager of Dubuque, IA, sent out a standard memo to all city offices saying that they were going to be closed on April 2nd for, “Spring Holiday” — a departure from the typical nomenclature of calling the day, “Good Friday”.   This was due to a May 2009 recommendation by the city’s Civil Rights Commission suggesting that changing official city holiday names from religious-based ones to generic, non-religious ones would be fair to everyone involved.

The Christian Right went apeshit.

Much of this simply has to do with kneejerk reactions to really poor reporting on the case of many news sources that stated the headline as some form of, “City Renames ‘Good Friday’ to ‘Spring Holiday’”, which seemingly implies that they were renaming the holiday for everyone in the entire town or some crazy crap — which it wasn’t.   It also wasn’t official, since the city manager cannot by himself make any sort of permanent change in policy without a city council vote.   And it only applied to one memo, distributed and applicable only to one group, the city employees.

The Christian Right still went bananas.

Apparently the phones have been ringing off the hook in Davenport city offices, saying such things as, “I’ll never visit Davenport for as long as I live,” calling the city manager profanities and so forth, and generally being extremely abusive and negative about the entire thing, all the while citing the supposed, “war on Christianity”.     Of course the city has issued apologies, retractions, anything and everything to stop the flow of crazy into their offices, but it’s astounding what has been said in the meantime.

I perhaps made an error in joining in the discussion on one of the reporting news sites and tried to inject a bit of sanity into the mix, citing the facts of the case and saying that this was a good thing, really, and nobody should feel offended whatsoever.   However, the sheer amount of hatred and insanity and obstinacy encountered set me back on my heels despite the fact that I’ve seen all this before.   It’s truly amazing and scary how vehemently blind people can be in their rage when you’ve come anywhere near their beliefs.

So much for following the typical Christian principles of kindness, meekness, and humility, eh?   Nice score, folks.

Frankly, in many ways, I’m tired of trying to inject logic and sense into arguments with such people.   I prefer to take the high road and remove the emotion from the situation and instead focus on the facts and solutions, but time and time again there’s these waves of ugly people screaming in my ear with no regard to how they’d face up in an intellectual match-up.    How can you make such obtuse statements and never once stop to hear what the other is saying?

ONE:  There is NO WAR on Christianity — I don’t care what you think the rest of the world is trying to do, they’re not attempting to quash your religion or your beliefs.   Rather, we’re trying to level the playing field.   For years Christians have gotten a nod above the crowd in America and it’s high time we live up to our founding principles of being a land where you can worship as you please and live as you please without discrimination in any direction. Just because YOU don’t feel discriminated against because you ARE a Christian and 90% of this country and culture is aligned in that direction doesn’t mean that Joe Muslim or Jane Jew over here isn’t feeling like crap because of it.    Remember:   My freedom is not complete until everyone else’s freedom is complete.

I don’t favor putting any other religion above Christianity, but it clearly has far too many concessions.    The only fair and right thing to do is to make it…fair and even and uninfluenced, which brings me to my second point:

TWO: Whether or Not “Separation of Church and State” is in the Constitution, it’s Still a Damned Good Idea™ — Here’s the thing, folks — no matter what beliefs you have, you want the government to stay OUT of them.   Entirely.    It only works right now for you because there’s a majority of Christians in this country and the government is mostly run by Christians of one flavor or another.    But how about a whole set of Muslims get in office, or Jews, or Wiccans, or…anything?   Do you want them to be naming official holidays after their religions or would you rather there be a generic name for everyone?   Do you want them to say, “Well, prayer in schools is fine, but only if you perform the Salaat“?   It is better, and fair, if we simply let people believe and practice as they please without any influence of any sort in the public sector.

Repeat after me:   Religion doesn’t belong in Government, and Government doesn’t belong in Religion

THREE: Engaging in a Logical Argument with Bible Verses, Invocations of God, and the Like Makes You A Moron — Do not comment or join in an argument where your only engagement is to quote scripture or go off on other, “god is great, god is good, you’re evil and you’re gonna burn” sort of statements.   It makes you look like a crazy nut who is incapable of slotting your intelligence against anyone else so instead you spout off the only thing you know which is what you were told to say and think.    If you cannot offer up a reasonable argument or point, keep quiet.   You’ll be doing everyone a favor, including yourself.

Audience Participation!

What do you think?   Is there a war on Christianity or simply an influx of nuts?   Do you think Dubuque was smart or stupid?    What’s your recommendation for going forth and making things better in this arena?