The United States is a nation secular by default. But that doesn't stop people on either side of the wall of separation between state and superstition from trying to tunnel through to each other. The First District Court of Appeal in Florida takes an average of ten months to resolve an appeal, with only six out of 3,500 appeals more than six months old. But strangely, the challenge to Florida's voucher law (which provides public funds to religious organizations) was filed in August 2002 and the appeal is still pending. And while the Reverend Jerry Fallwell continues to enjoy the tax-exempt status of the organizations he leads, he does not feel compelled to refrain from partisan endorsement of President George Bush - in direct violation of the laws governing tax-exempt organizations. Whether it be a friendly court providing a wink and a nod to the faithful, or a religious group assuming political power, the threats to this secular nation are grave. Is it perhaps time to at last use our reason and our laughter to chase away these tellers of ghost stories? Or do we need more airplanes flown into buildings, more Presidents lead by providence, before we can stand up to religion?
H. L. Menkin, in his coverage of the Scopes monkey trial, wrote: "True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can, in season and out of season. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge. Did Darrow, in the course of his dreadful bombardment of Bryan, drop a few shells, incidentally, into measurably cleaner camps? Then let the garrisons of those camps look to their defenses. They are free to shoot back. But they can't disarm their enemy."
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