Barry Goldwater conservatives are fine by me – conservatism would be in better shape if there more such supporters.

JozefAL,

Strange that you have such a strong reaction to something you supposedly don’t care about.

Dismissing religion entirely, which you seem to do, is the product of a narrow mind.

And please tell me what is wrong about Christians sending Bibles to countries behind the Iron Curtain? Was life there so wonderful that people needed no comfort or hope?

And the focus of this post is not even religion – it is the grossly unfair and discriminatory compensation being offered so some parts of the populace for no good reason.

It’s crap like this that makes you wonder just how these American Christians would have dealt with the real persecutions of the first Century, like the being fed to the lions and being stoned or shot with arrows or being flayed and drawn and quartered, just for the amusement of the masses. I’ve got a feeling these Christian Talibanists would switch faiths just to avoid the extremes of REAL persecution.
So many of these lame-brains spent the better part of the Cold War era begging for money to send Bibles behind the Iron Curtain or, even worse, wrote the crappy Jack Chick comic books to indoctrinate a younger generation.
As the old prayer goes, “Jesus, save us all from your followers.”

You know, if
one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and
they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an
organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

These people are sincere in their religion and would surely like a different job but can’t find work other than this, and they were all apparently law-abiding family people. And because our country seemes to require endless slaughtering of animals in inhumane ways, they can’t shut down the “production line” easily.

It used to be only the Mexican immigrants working there to serve the country’s demand for meat, but I personally know one who became a vegetarian even after he was able to find a better job. (Think of the Mexicans’ usual diet–a vegetarian Mexican is pretty rare.)

So basically it’s always the same issue: We have extremely awful jobs available that only the poorest immigrants will take and then we complain about them. It may often be more than a religious issue.

I often don’t find meatless meals anywhere so bring my own food or eat salad, which IS usually available. I wouldn’t scream and demand it as my right. But then, I didn’t ever have a job or school situation that doesn’t make me want to puke or made me feel somehow “dirty.”

I know this opinion will anger some here. I agree on the need to separate religion from government. As a teacher I have always defended the idea that we do not force people to sit through prayers at certain time or during certain functions. I understood the students’ who objected to the “in God we trust” part of the pledge. And I understood my Jehovah’s Witnesses who asked to be excused from attending school on days that had clearly set aside time for things they didn’t believe in. And I do also remember kids getting time off–I was one–to attend Good Friday services if we wanted, etc.

We can separate church and state, but we can work to find a compromise always for people who are sincerely trying to follow their religion.

Is that discrimination ..??