let me hear your voice tonight (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexseanchai) wrote2010-05-14 07:00 pm
alexseanchai) wrote2010-05-14 07:00 pm
Entry tags:
to any Hindus who read this, I apologize in advance
Imagine a United States in which it is unthinkable that the inauguration of a new president not include lighting incense before a statue of Ganesha and asking his blessing on the new president's administration.
Imagine a United States in which a presidential candidate mentioning religions other than Hinduism and Buddhism is considered a victory for devotees of those other religions.
Imagine a United States in which no town is small enough to have fewer than two temples to different Hindu gods, and Catholic churches are few and far between.
Imagine a United States in which the Hindu parents who sue a Christian church for letting their child sit in on the church's religious education win because parents have a right to direct their children's religious education, but the Christian parents who sue a Hindu temple for letting their child sit in on the temple's religious education lose because the First Amendment establishes the right to free exercise of religion.
Imagine a United States in which custody battles between a Hindu and a Christian almost always go in favor of the Hindu parent, for reasons that usually boil down to the founder of Christianity slowly suffocated under his own weight while hanging from the nails driven through his wrists and the followers of Christianity consider this a good thing, so how can any Christian be trusted to raise a child to believe torture is wrong?
Imagine a United States in which nonHindus have a choice of not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, thus proving themselves not loyal Americans, or reciting most of the Pledge of Allegiance, thus proving themselves not sufficiently loyal Americans, or reciting all of the Pledge of Allegiance including the bit where it says the United States is under the guidance of Indra, thus affirming beliefs contrary to their own. Similarly, every coin and bill that ever came out of the United States Mint has Lakshmi's name on it.
Imagine a United States in which there was a big fuss forty years ago because one of the presidential candidates was a Saivite Hindu; where that candidate won, and is still the only president anyone can think of offhand who was other than a Vaishnavite Hindu; where there was a fuss a few years ago trying to figure out whether one of the candidates, a Shakta Hindu, was Hindu enough to be a serious candidate; where one of the accusations commonly leveled at the current president is that he was not raised Hindu (true) and that his current practice of Hinduism is a front (probably untrue, but by definition unprovable).
Imagine a United States in which the Purusarthas are displayed in courthouses, and suggestions that the display be removed or expanded to include the Eightfold Path and possibly the Ten Commandments (which both, like the Purusarthas, have the general theme of what one must do to be a good person) because the First Amendment forbids government establishment of religion are met with fury because the United States was established as a Hindu nation.
Imagine a United States in which casual references to the Mahabharata are generally understood to be generally understood, and casual references to the Bible tend to fly over everyone's heads.
Do you have an idea of what it is to be a Christian in that United States?
That's what it is to be other than Christian in this United States.
ETA: This rant brought to you by an argument with my mother over Thomas Jefferson. I emailed her the text of it yesterday. Her response:
News flash, Mother: when I came to the US, I neither knew nor cared that this was a "Judeo-Christian" nation. I am a native-born US citizen, as you know damn well, and I am an atheist, as you have known for eight years, and this is my country too.
Imagine a United States in which a presidential candidate mentioning religions other than Hinduism and Buddhism is considered a victory for devotees of those other religions.
Imagine a United States in which no town is small enough to have fewer than two temples to different Hindu gods, and Catholic churches are few and far between.
Imagine a United States in which the Hindu parents who sue a Christian church for letting their child sit in on the church's religious education win because parents have a right to direct their children's religious education, but the Christian parents who sue a Hindu temple for letting their child sit in on the temple's religious education lose because the First Amendment establishes the right to free exercise of religion.
Imagine a United States in which custody battles between a Hindu and a Christian almost always go in favor of the Hindu parent, for reasons that usually boil down to the founder of Christianity slowly suffocated under his own weight while hanging from the nails driven through his wrists and the followers of Christianity consider this a good thing, so how can any Christian be trusted to raise a child to believe torture is wrong?
Imagine a United States in which nonHindus have a choice of not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, thus proving themselves not loyal Americans, or reciting most of the Pledge of Allegiance, thus proving themselves not sufficiently loyal Americans, or reciting all of the Pledge of Allegiance including the bit where it says the United States is under the guidance of Indra, thus affirming beliefs contrary to their own. Similarly, every coin and bill that ever came out of the United States Mint has Lakshmi's name on it.
Imagine a United States in which there was a big fuss forty years ago because one of the presidential candidates was a Saivite Hindu; where that candidate won, and is still the only president anyone can think of offhand who was other than a Vaishnavite Hindu; where there was a fuss a few years ago trying to figure out whether one of the candidates, a Shakta Hindu, was Hindu enough to be a serious candidate; where one of the accusations commonly leveled at the current president is that he was not raised Hindu (true) and that his current practice of Hinduism is a front (probably untrue, but by definition unprovable).
Imagine a United States in which the Purusarthas are displayed in courthouses, and suggestions that the display be removed or expanded to include the Eightfold Path and possibly the Ten Commandments (which both, like the Purusarthas, have the general theme of what one must do to be a good person) because the First Amendment forbids government establishment of religion are met with fury because the United States was established as a Hindu nation.
Imagine a United States in which casual references to the Mahabharata are generally understood to be generally understood, and casual references to the Bible tend to fly over everyone's heads.
Do you have an idea of what it is to be a Christian in that United States?
That's what it is to be other than Christian in this United States.
ETA: This rant brought to you by an argument with my mother over Thomas Jefferson. I emailed her the text of it yesterday. Her response:
Your rambling makes little sense. And while there is religious freedom, and there is not a government-established religion (though the advocates of government-established secular humanism are making great inroads in restricting religious freedom), those who choose to move here knew it was a Judeo-Christian nation. Don't move next to the airport and then complain about the planes and expect that to be changed to accommodate them.
News flash, Mother: when I came to the US, I neither knew nor cared that this was a "Judeo-Christian" nation. I am a native-born US citizen, as you know damn well, and I am an atheist, as you have known for eight years, and this is my country too.
no subject
Imagine a United States in which the Hindu parents who sue a Christian church for letting their child sit in on the church's religious education win because parents have a right to direct their children's religious education, but the Christian parents who sue a Hindu temple for letting their child sit in on the temple's religious education lose because the First Amendment establishes the right to free exercise of religion.
I'm finding that particularly disgusting. Why the heck are these parents suing the institution instead of having a long talk with their child? I know parentism is becoming more and more absentee or something, but guh! (And I thought the Famiy Locator function in my new cell phone was bad....)
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I should actually look up the cases I'm thinking of, shouldn't I...
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Also, I'd like references for the court-cases please xD
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Yeah, should find them, shouldn't I.
no subject