From: khosrow@bach.sim.es.com (Khosrow Motamedi)
Subject: Re: Republican Convention
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 09:22:04 GMT

ali@utrcv1 (ALI BABA) writes:


     [Much in support of government's dispensation of morality deleted]


I didn't get quite enough of Dan Quayle and Jimmy Swaggart this morning. 
Your article was just what I needed to complete my daily dose of pompous
moralizing. And yes, by all means, let's have the government choose and 
dictate religion and moral values to people, because let's face it, we the 
people are morons and are just not bright enough to know what's good for us.

In fact, legislation of morality and proselytizing should now become a full-
time task for both the president and the Congress. While they might look like 
mere mortals, members of Congress possess super-human capabilities which allow 
them to solve age-old riddles that have baffled philosophers and thinkers
for centuries.

They and only they know what's right and good for us. And where do they get 
this knowledge from, you ask? Why from the heavens of course. Whenever it's 
time for Holy Congressional Revelation, they need only venture out to one of 
the designated meditation spots, which are cleverly disguised as lavish golf 
courses, exclusive country clubs and expensive resorts to keep an ordinary 
common clay of a tax payer such as yourself from intruding on the sacred 
ritual. They might only look like they are having a ball at tax payers' 
expense, but don't be fooled by appearances. What they are really doing is 
meditating very intensely and receiving - you guessed it - Congressional 
Revelation. That's right, and it's only us really really religious and
enlightened ones who can see that. That and the Emperor's clothes.

A word of caution though, don't get too bent out of shape if the government's 
favorite religion doesn't turn out to be the same as your own. After all, no
matter what they do, it is all for your own good. Really, you'll see. Just 
obey and have faith.

All humor aside, this is a serious matter. It is very easy to get lulled into 
a false sense of security under a governmental moral blanket and what are a 
handful of people's ideas of moral righteousness. At the onset it may seem like
a very attractive idea to have one's government reflect (read enforce) a set 
of moral and personal values and to defer to it what should be personal 
choices. But unconsciously you have turned off the use of your greatest gifts 
as a human being, i.e. your power of reason and logic, and your ability to 
choose what *your* faculties recognize as right and wrong. Gradually, over 
time, what starts as a nice soft harmless blanket acquires a life of its own,
takes on monstrous characteristics and will proceed to suffocate those who
are being "protected" by it. The original body of the "moral laws" grow and
transform to a point that they are no longer recognizable, and once they do,
it is too late to turn back. Once you give up the first right and freedom, it 
is very difficult to keep the ruling body from legislating on other similar 
issues. It is even more difficult to win any one of them back. 

Throughout history, whenever people have either willingly or unwillingly 
deferred moral judgement and authority to the government and have submitted
to their ruler on what ought to be personal values, the results have been
invariably disastrous.

> [...] are posing a threat to our constitution. 

It is interesting that you should bring up the Constitution or "our 
constitution." Here's a little quote from one of its framers on religion and 
government:

	"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by
	 the Supreme Being as his Father, in the womb of a virgin, will
	 be classified with the fable of the generation of Minerva in
	 the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason
	 and the freedom of thought in these United States will do away
	 with this artificial scaffolding and restore to us the 
	 primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer
	 of human errors."

						-- Thomas Jefferson


Regards,
-Khosrow