Tolerance needed on earthly journey
THE subject of religious tolerance will continue to be topical now that the British local government secretary, Eric Pickles, powerfully, purposefully permits prayer again before council meetings, thus overriding a court ban against Bideford Town Council in Devon.
Some years ago, a hotel guest in America objected, on the grounds of an infringement of human rights, to the presence of a Gideon Bible in the room, even though the book was closed in a closed draw.
Public tolerance to religious liberty can sometimes appear to be extreme or out of this world.
On Christmas Eve in 1968, the first manned spacecraft orbited the moon. On board were the intrepid astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders.
They had already been travelling for three days in space. They broadcast a live television transmission from their spacecraft, and together they prayed and also read the first 10 verses of the First Chapter of Genesis to eager listeners on earth, some 240,000 miles away.
They began with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
The American atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair filed a law suit against NASA for permitting the broadcast.
She claimed that, since the astronauts were federal employees, they should be banned from saying prayers in public; and she lost her case.
Yet NASA did not permit future references to faith in subsequent flights. Therefore, when Buzz Aldrin took communion after the fist landing on the moon, this fact went unreported.
In 1844, Samuel Morse’s first telegraph message gave God the credit for his invention, which later saved thousands of lives, when he tapped out the message, “”What hath God wrought?”
As we travel together on earth at more than 65,000 miles per hour on our annual journey around the sun, surely we should be more tolerant of each other’s viewpoint.
Neil C Oliver, LL B
Newtownards
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amadeus
Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 03:40 PMTolerance works both ways. When will there be tolerance shown from those Christians who oppose gay Christian couples marrying in their own churches, where the ministers are in agreement and the church does not object? Why must these gay Christian couples be denied freedom to express their religion on the most important day of their lives- their wedding day? Why is this lack of tolerance , which DEMANDS that the law of the land forbid such freedom of conscience and worship still being perpetrated by so many Christians in Northern Ireland?
colmorrison
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 08:34 PMThis argument of 'greater tolerance towards religion' is a bait and switch con, a disguise for the retention of religious privilege in civil matters. Councillors were never banned from praying before meetings - they were banned from praying DURING meetings - it was the first item on the agenda. They were free to do so before the sessions began, but instead insisted on forcing it on everyone present. An atheist such as the former councillor Mr Bone, who brought the action, would have found it annoying and foolish, but how would a Muslim member feel? In Portsmouth council, a Christian member stormed out in protest when a Muslim member was allowed to say the prayer. How would Mr Oliver feel if the prayers in his council were spoken in Irish, or invoked Xenu, Thor or Satan? The matter itself is fairly mild, but it sets a precedent for further religious ingress into public life, despite the fact that an Ipsos MORI poll now shows practising Christians to be a minority in Britain. Of the broader sense of Christian, an estimated 54% of the population, of whom 49% (26.5% of the population) do not consider Jesus as the Son of God, 74% do not believe religion should have special influence on public policy, with only 12% believing it should. Mr Pickles was not only high-handed in over-ruling the courts, he was acting in defiance of public opinion.
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