At this moment the continuance of George Bush’s commitment to Faith as the determinant of where our tax money goes is in the hands of the Supreme Court. I had been wondering where “FAITH” had gone after Bush rammed it down our throats by executive passion. It seems that the offices created to handle issues related to faith have been quietly receiving tax monies and this has caused questions to be raised about its propriety but now about its constitutionality.
This is my problem as it might well be yours. We must have faith of course – but which shall be the official one? We know that George Bush is born again but into what particular institutionalized denomination that he would direct the Court to declare is THE FAITH of the UNITED STATES? It is a vexing problem that should never have been raised to the status of national debate and Supreme Court jurisdiction. And, what it has boiled down to is the “standing” tax operations have in the Supreme Court. The other questions about which faith will prevail as the “faith of our fathers” is set aside while procedural matters are seriously discussed by this Court which has shown a preference for the conservatism of Mr. Bush.
It is easy to say that the whole of the Muslim world bows to the memory of Muhammad. It is dangerous to imply that there can be an image of Muhammad – even if it is a serious one and not a cartoon – for the Islamic world does not believe in images in the same way as the Christian world goes in heavily for representations of Mary, Joseph and Jesus making way to be counted and, of course the martyrdom of Jesus on the cross is central to the belief that God had a son by a mortal woman. The new sensational “discovery” of the bones of a family interred together with the rather common names of people living in and about the time of the Jesus crucifixion has raised the “belief” and “faith” level to a higher pitch.
The “Jewish” Scriptures, or THE Bible tells the story of how Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt (please remember to buy 20007 certified Matzos this year) and set them up for taking over lands occupied by Philistines – thereby creating THE HOLY LAND that is the center of so much controversy today. The descendants of the Philistines want that land back. They want to push the present day Israelites into the sea after some opportunistic butchering. But that is a matter of faith and the whereabouts of Moses was inconveniently kept secret so no one spot could be claimed as a shrine to his having died and interred there. But these are matters of faith and no one is pushing to have either the Jewish or the Islamic Faith allowed equal standing with some Christian sect such as Baptist (The Southern Baptists are the most strict, I believe).
Leaving matters of faith up to the Supreme Court is scary.