One of the hobby horses of liberal journalists over the past decade has been issuing dire warnings of an impending theocracy being imposed by the radical right. These warnings are absurd, of course, and Ross Douthat a few years back aptly took the scalpel to these arguments, making this key point:
In other words, the Left often confuses people being loud about their faith with people “imposing their beliefs” on others. While you do see, in some Southern states, efforts to use government force to advance conservative or Christian values, the trend in the country is the opposite: government using the law to require or pressure conservatives to act against their conscience, or to outlaw some Christian practices.
In the name of “neutrality” and “separation of Church and state,” government is, in fact, imposing a religious view — this one just happens to be anti-religious and anti-Christian.
One method the government uses for wiping away religion is by expanding the number of things it funds, and then making sure that anything with a little government funding doesn’t include anything religious. Today’s example, from Macon, Ga.:
The organization that provides meals at a senior citizens center has told the elderly citizens who visit the center it would violate federal rules for them to pray out loud before meals. Instead they have been asked to observe a moment of silence.
The meals are partially paid for with federal funds.
There’s a lot to say about this problem, but I’ll leave it here for now: the bigger government is, the more we encounter this situations.
