Church & State

[gilana]

My choir just sang at the Somerville mayoral inauguration tonight. I first started to get a little uncomfortable at the invocation by Father David Doucet of Saint Benedict's Church. The administration of oaths, each concluding with "so help me G-d" made me wonder a little about the whole church and state issue. A duo sang "He Looked Beyond My Fault," which was beautifully sung, but I really didn't appreciate the bits about Jesus dying for our sins. There was a short respite from religion while the newly inaugurated officials made endless speeches, including Mayor Curtatone's speech on the value of diversity and integration in Somerville. Then the True Light Choir sang about Jesus Our King while the whole audience clapped along. This was followed by the coup de grace, a benediction by the pastor of the Evangelical Haitian Church of Somerville, which he got almost all the way through before mentioning Jesus. If my way out had not been blocked, I would have been out the door right then. I'm just furious.

I have nothing against religious music. I've sung Christian religious music myself, and enjoyed it a lot. But at an official city event, the message this sent to me was that Somerville is a Christian city and my beliefs are not welcome or respected. I'm planning to write a letter to the mayor as soon as I calm down enough to trust my judgment. Grrrrr.

Comments

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

Well, you know how Osama bin Laden and his bunch are all godless atheists. :-)

Closer to the truth, I suppose people who belong to the same church do tend to avoid wars with each other. (Kinda like the McDonald's theory.) So the "we're all Protestants here" idea probably is good for domestic tranquility. It's not so good for international peace, though, I suspect.

[motlei.livejournal.com]

As a "godless atheist" I'd have to mention that even the Protestants can't get along with other Protestants... it's a pretty big umbrella really.

I actually managed to read the ammendment too, thank goodness, I knew it was there, but for some reason the feeling I still get is political sanctioning of Christianity and to heck with anything else.

[sandhawke.livejournal.com]

I'm not really disagreeing, but I can't think of any wars between protest countries or parts of countries. I suppose that doesn't tell you anything about domestic civility, though, does it. Oh well.