Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Day after day, year after year, preacher Barry C. Black keeps on using his pulpit in the Senate, as its official, government-paid chaplain, to agitate in favor of mass conversion to Christianity. Yesterday, Chaplain Black gave a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate in which he called upon his deity to transform United States Senators so that they would do the bidding of Christian religion: “Cause them to be men and women of integrity, so that our citizens can lead quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty.”

You know, Mr. Black, here in the United States of America we have a little old thing called the First Amendment to the Constitution. It guarantees us freedom of religion, which includes the right to lead lives that don’t fit with your definition of being godly and quiet. I don’t want to live a life in quiet godliness. It may not fit your religious ideals, which call upon everyone but preachers like you to be silent, but I’ll talk back to your continuing violation of the separation of church and state.

It’s an abuse of your power, Barry, to take a public salary and use it to keep pushing your religion. If you must pray using taxpayer money to do it, why don’t you do something useful, and pray for rain in the desert?