Democrats have proposed Constitutional Amendments to alter the ruling in Citizens United. This is a different tactic from proposing multiple lawsuits hoping to obtain a different judicial opinion.
**Amendment would help put power back in the hands of the American people.** (Washington, DC) -...
www.shaheen.senate.gov
The US should move forward on a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and abortion and legalize all public displays of Christianity and Judaism, loosely defined so as to include as many as possible regardless of denomination, to include anyone who identifies as Christian, Jewish or Samaritan, and also Zoroastrians because d the relationship between their religion and Christianity. Likewise Sikhs would enjoy this privilege, and Jainists, Taoists, Confucianists and Shinto practitioners, to support the Sikh community in the US and the excellent I would support extending this privilege to Hinduism and Buddhism if India and certain Southeast Asian countries such as Bhutan agreed to grant religious liberty to Christians, or in the case of India, to act to stop the violence against Christians that has increased since the BJP came to power.
In the case of Islam, those forms of Islam that are non-violent and which do not persecute Christians at present and which lack any current or recent involvement in terrorism, which consist largely of Sufi groups such as the Mevlevi (whirling dervishes) and crypto-Christian groups such as the Alevi and Bektasi, and other groups known to be supportive of Christians such as the Alawis of Syria and the Ibadi Muslims of Oman (who unlike the rest I mentioned, are not Sufi, but are rather unique among Muslims as they are neither Sunni nor Shi’a, but worship in basically the same way, the only difference being one of posture during the start of prayers), and also other groups known for non-hostility to Christians, for example, the community of Nizari Shi’a led by His Highness the Aga Khan, as well as Muslims from US-allied countries which are known to tolerate Christianity, such as Jordan, Egypt, Morrocco snd the UAE, and individual Muslim immigrants that support rights for Christianity, but are not US allies, with this being presumptive in the case of Lebanon, Syria, Kurdistan and most Central Asian republics that have minorities of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Christians, such as Kazakhstan and the other “stans” with the exception of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which actively persecute Christianity.
Finally, religions known to be persecuted by Islamist regimes such as the Mandaeans, Yazidis, Yarsanis, the aforementioned Zoroastrians (who are persecuted in Iran to such an extent that the majority now live in India, which include many who are not part of the Parsi caste which has been in India for a very long time), and the Falakhas of Pakistan.
Finally, indigenous religions, both of native Americans and of immigrants, should be positively supported (except in the case of immigrants where the religion is not really indigenous but a neo-Pagan revival, such as Rodnovery).
In summary, all religions that can demonstrate traditionality, which are not high-control groups also known as cults (that is to say, which do not engage in shunning practices), and which are known to reject violence against Christians and Jews, should be allowed to make exhibits and be visible in public. So only those groups such as fundamentalist Sunni and Shi’a Muslims and certain Hindu sects that currently engage in violence towards Christians, and Buddhist sects that are the state religion in countries that persecute Christianity, should be restricted, along with religions which are known to be “Parody religions” which make displays designed to mock other religions.
Among these groups, and also in the category of dangerous cults, I think such a proposed amendment should be designed to target parody religions such as the Church of the Sub-Genius, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and other thinly disguised atheist groups, including, at least ostensibly, Anton LaVey’s Satanic group (with theistic Satanists and practitioners of Voudon and related religions such as Louisiana Voodoo and Hoodoo, Juju and so on, which in many cases engage in dangerous practices such as eating red clay, which can cause pregnant women to miscarry, as well as the hunting of endangered species for use in fetish markets and animal cruelty, which are a staple of Voudon in its original Beninese form (but here, it must be stressed, it is a syncretic religion rather than an indigenous religion, one that resulted from the convergence of multiple religious groups and which borrows concepts from Islam and Christianity and many other sources, in contrast to, for example, the traditional religion of the Bantu people. Likewise religions which shun people, such as Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and certain Amish and Old Order Mennonite sects.
Also, Kwanzaa should of course be tolerated since it is not associated with any specific religion but rather is engaged in by a number of African Americans.
The basic criteria for participation in the public sphere should therefore be defined by such an ammendment according to these precepts:
- Non-persecution and non-violence towards Christians and Jews at present, and a rejection of such violence by the leadership of the religion (if this changes, these religions would be excluded).
- Indigenous status, absolute for religions originating in sovereign US territory such as the continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, et cetera, and in the case of other countries, in all cases where this religion is authentic and not a re-creation of some ancient Pagan religion that has not been practiced in centuries, such as Wicca, neo-Paganism and Rodnovery.
- Not shunning people, due to the emotional harm this causes, which is a fixture of the major cults like Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other high-control groups, also known as cults, including groups who are only now understood to be harmful such as the Amish and Old Order Mennonites. The Amish and Old Order Mennonites would not likely participate anyway, given that they avoid engaging with the government as much as possible.
- Refraining from harmful practices, such as polygamy and child abuse in the case of the Fundamentalist LDS (who still regard the imprisoned child molester Warren Jeffs as the President and Prophet of their church, disturbingly), or large scale harm to animals and harmful and unhealthy practices involving the use of fetishes and the consumption of hazardous material like red clay in the case of the large number of religions that originated with Voudon in Benin, but which have developed in substantially different directions, such as with Hoodoo and Juju, but which retain the core concept of the use of sorcerers or witch doctors and extensive animal sacrifices and other abuses.
- Being a bona fide religion that does not intentionally mock other religions, in the manner of “Parody religions” that exist to mock Christianity, Judaism and other religions, which include, in addition to the examples cited above, groups that observe “Festivus” and other groups which are basically atheists seeking to degrade and offend people of faith, which is an activity protected by the First Ammendment, but it should not be a requirement for government buildings to allow these groups to put up displays as a pre-condition to allowing, for example, a Creche or the display of the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes or other material from traditional religions.
