Something one often hears nowadays is that American society, thanks to Obama or someone, has become antagonistic toward religion. Bigotry aimed at Christians, for example, is regarded as a grave problem requiring redress. What is the evidence for this view? I am not aware of candidates for office touting their atheism. On the contrary, someone like Trump—whose 70-some years on Earth haven't dented his ignorance of everything outside of the con & hustle, the void certainly encompassing Christianity and the Bible—is obliged suddenly to feign reverence when seeking the presidency: see above clip.
During this season of covid, there have been bans on public worship—but for good reason, since hardly anything is more likely to result in a super-spreader event than people crowding into an indoor space where they then preach, sing, recite aloud a liturgy, share with one another "the peace of the Lord," successively receive communion in a face-to-face manner: all high-risk, from a public health perspective. After a choir practice last spring at a church outside Seattle, 45 of 60 singers became ill with covid; three were hospitalized and two died. Nevertheless, there has been a hue and cry about "closed churches," and the proof of the prejudicial intent was supposed to be the enterprises that remained open, such as big-box retailers. But the kinds of enterprises and activities that most nearly resemble public worship—concert halls, playhouses, movie theaters, comedy clubs, schools of all kinds—were shut, too. I do not perceive the animus toward religion, but there's a lot of evidence that something like the opposite is true.
Billy Ray Stutzmann was an assistant football coach at the US Naval Academy until he was fired this week after refusing to be vaccinated against covid. He put out a statement on Twitter attributing his refusal to unspecified "religious convictions" augmented, naturally, by "much thought and prayer." People say stuff like this all the time and apparently it's considered a breach of etiquette to seek more information about the "religious convictions" requiring adherents to remain unprotected against a highly contagious disease that's killed around 685,000 Americans. What is the theological principle? Is there a Biblical instruction? Something in the writings of Aquinas or Luther or in the sermon of a megachurch preacher who flies around the country in his private jet?
Attributing opinions and actions to your "religious convictions" gives them a status they may not deserve. Once invoked, further inquiry is shut down. It's forbidden to express curiosity, let alone skepticism, about convictions so vague that all one can know about them is that the subscriber deems them "religious." Violators of the code are anti-religious bigots. Generally, the highest card wins the trick, but Coach Stutzmann exercised every American's right to cry "Religion!" while playing one face down. At least in this one instance, the other players told him to leave the table. Progress!
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