Although the local circulation of our ‘The Roanoke Star.com’ is many thousands, the Internet that is home to our publication has outreach to everyone in the world with a computer or high tech device that can receive Internet messages. Last week’s column was entitled, ‘Dick Baynton: Tolerance as a One-Way Street.’ Apparently the word ‘tolerance’ is a hot-button word that reaps comments from readers.
Nine responses have been received; the furthest from ‘Steven’ at Teesside, a public University in NE England near Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire with over 20,000 students. Steven says, “It’s a pity Dick doesn’t understand the First Amendment.” Another response was received from ‘Dan’, a student at Azusa Pacific University, a private Wesleyan-Holiness evangelical Christian university of 6,500 students located in Azusa, a suburb of Los Angeles. His comment corrected my count of 11,000 members of ‘Freedom From Religion Foundation’ (FFRF) to 29,000 with 675 members in Virginia. The FFRF website says membership numbers 24,000.
Another response was from ‘Stephen’ of Hawthorne, CA who mentioned that ‘Novus Ordo Seclorum’ translates to ‘New order of the ages.’ This is slightly different than the translation from my source that suggested the translation ‘New World Order.’ A response was received from ‘Sheila’, an assembly line inspector at Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. who mentioned that ‘putting “in God we trust” on our coins & bills is yet another violation of the first amendment to the constitution as we are not all believers in your “God” of Israel.”
‘Bryan’ said in his message, “Sorry, I and other atheists don’t “tolerate” constitutional violations.” ‘Gene’ from the University of Tennessee Knoxville mentioned that “In God we Trust” was not on dollar bills until he was 13. Well, Gene, I will assume you must be 73 years of age according to research that the 84th Congressional Congress passed (P.L. 84-140) and the bill was signed into law by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956. The phrase appeared first on paper currency in 1957.
Although all these responses were critical of my grasp of history and the reality and applicability of the Constitution of The United States, all comments with their feelings, mainly about the separation of church and state are graciously accepted. All criticisms are recognized in the same manner as they were submitted; your firm stand is understood and confirmed that we will never concur on all things. But we must grant that in this great world of turmoil, we are a nation that tolerates differences of opinion, encourages debate and expects fairness and civility in all discourse and disputes.
Here is a question that has been bothering me just as some of my comments have bothered you. NASA Administrator and retired USMC Major General and former astronaut Charles Bolden in an interview with Al Jazeera television announced on July 6th, 2010 that President Obama had charged him and his agency to three things: “One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”
Where were the ACLU and the FFRF when our president committed an entire agency of government consisting of thousands of workers to promote the religion, culture and mores of foreign nations including several theocracies? The women and men of NASA were charged with working for the benefit of Islam under the guise that NASA was simply revealing the achievements of Muslim men and women.
As a side note: In addition to promoting Islam, the space program was placed on hold and we bought space on the Russian Soyuz capsule at a cost of $60 million per round trip passenger.
Mr. Obama once said publicly that ‘The Islamic call to prayer is one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset.” And we are concerned about influencing voters in a small Virginia town with a Bible verse that says, “Blessed are the peacemakers…Matthew 5:9”?
To avoid any prolonged debate, I will respond no further on this subject. Thanks to all for your comments.
Dick Baynton
