Friday, August 15, 2008

God and Country, Hold the God

The Wilson County, TN Fair has, for the past five years, held a "God and Country" promotion wherein church groups (and presumably synagogue, mosque, gurdwara, etc. groups who would want to make the 30-minute trip from Nashville, though none have) would get a discount. Nashville-area atheist groups got wind of it this year, though, and asked Wilson County to let them in too.

Cue messy, expensive court battle replete with anti-atheist demagoguery and "this is a Christian nation" baloney, right? Apparently, not so much - Wilson County just decided to give atheist groups a discount too.

Congratulations, then, to Wilson County, for seeing the writing on the wall (which we refer to as the "Establishment Clause") and taking the sensible approach. See, we all can get along.

6 comments:

Ben said...

Was this writing on the wall written by a mysterious glowing hand in ancient Persia?

Matthew B. Novak said...

I think we should stop talking about faith/religion as a thing people have if they're believers and don't have if they're atheists, and start talking about "creed", because that's something everyone has. Then, instead of appealling to people of faith, you could just defacto open these types of things up to groups that promote creeds. Good to see the fair embrace some common sense.

Ben said...

But Matt, what if you think Creed was a terrible band? Should you be discriminated against because of your musical tastes? I can see the headline now: "Fair attendees forced to sing 'What's This Life For' for tickets."

Imagine the parade of horrors!

Note: I actually like Creed. At least the early stuff.

Jeff said...

Matt, I don't have any Creed.

Matthew B. Novak said...

Jeff -

I think you mean "cred".

And with the capitalized "Creed" you might be commenting on your musical catalogue, ala Ben's comment, but on the off-chance that you're seriously, I'll say:

Everyone has a creed. It's just a set of beliefs. Whether that involves an acceptance or rejection of faith, a position of agnosticism, a fundamental postion in opposition to the asking of deep questions or a universalist approach that embraces everything. One way or another, you've got a belief. And that's your creed.

Ok, here's hoping I didn't make an ass of myself over-explaining something obvious.

Jeff said...

Yeah, I was riffing on Ben there. I have a creed, but I have little cred and no Creed. Just never got around to buying any.