Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Dinner Topics

Friday August 29, 2003

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Note: Click here for an update to the column on Financing a Campaign: "Fundraising on the Internet."

A number of readers have written to ask when I was going to explore the Alabama Ten Commandments issue. Readers on the Left have smugly inferred that I was afraid to write about it; readers on the Right have been, I suspect, looking for an ally.

As regular readers know, I am neither a theologian nor an attorney. I do, however, try to meet the "reasonable man test" whenever possible.

Like most things in our lives, the issue of whether demonstrating one's religious preferences is a permissible activity comes down to a matter of degree.

A woman wearing a Cross (or a Muslim Crescent or a Star of David) as a necklace; or a man wearing a similar device as a lapel pin should not, in any reasonable circumstance, be a prohibited activity.

I am writing, here, of a typical insignia - maybe an inch in size.

However, if you were going into a conference with a client and one of your colleagues came in carrying a six foot cross as a demonstration of his religious beliefs you might, somewhere between getting out of the cab and getting into the elevator, make the most gentle mention of whether carrying actual lumber into a meeting was perfectly appropriate.

If I am not concerned about the lapel pin, why should I be distressed at the sight of my colleague leaning his cross up against the wall?

Obviously, most of us have no trouble seeing a difference.

Similarly, on many a street corner in this country we see people professing their faith - often very loudly - reciting passages from the Bible. So long as they are not physically impeding traffic - pedestrian or vehicular - they are free to preach until hunger, thirst, and/or laryngitis causes them to stop.

If, however, that person hooked himself up to a multi-decibel speaker system which was so loud that it interfered with people inside nearby buildings from carrying on their normal business then most of us would think that was a bit much.

Let's look at the other side of this.

The Old Testament is used as basic religious text by Jews and Christians but not Muslims. The New Testament is recognized by Christians but not Jews or Muslims. The Koran is recognized by Muslims but not Jews or Christians.

According to Minnesota State University, there are six major religions in the world: Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism.

What if a judge in - to throw a dart at a map and randomly pick a place - San Francisco, were a devout Animist. No problem there. Who would know and who would care?

But, if he installed a two-ton statue of a goat with a proper (to Animism) inscription, thereby flying in the face of the First and Second Commandments of the Judeo-Christian culture, there are many - including me - who would find this expression of one judge's religious beliefs, inappropriate.

Moral: Never discuss religion at a dinner party�

Weekend polls: Exactly one year before every breathless anchor on every cable network will be intoning: As we approach Labor Day - the unofficial beginning of the Presidential Campaign - current polls show �

The Gallup organization released a poll yesterday which had the President's job approval at 59% about which the Gallup organization wrote:

The key point to emphasize in the current situation is that Bush's ratings have held steady over the last 40 days or so, even in the midst of the less than positive news from Iraq

Last weekend Newsweek published a poll showing that 49% said the President should not be re-elected while only 44% said he should which generated an enormous amount of political chatter.

However, yesterday's Gallup poll had this result as to the President's prospects for re-election: Would be more likely to vote for George W. Bush or "the Democratic Party's candidate for President?"

Bush: 51% - Dem Candidate: 39%

That number is actually UP three points from one month ago when it was 49-40.

�Or politics.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Minnesota State University page on world religions, a link to the Gallup page, and a link to Fundraising on the Internet.

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