What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander - Tolerance Please
I'm struck by the fact that so many Americans are quick to condemn the intrusion of religion into the political structures of various other societies while at the same time they steadfastly seek to impose their religious values onto the political structure of the United States. No Sharia law, they say. Down with Muslim fundamentalism, they chant. Turkey should remain secular, they opine. The Wahabi movement should not dictate the laws in Saudi Arabia, they cry. Iran should shed itself of its mullahs, they demand.
Yet, today I heard a flock of Republican candidates for President trying to outdo one another in wanting the American Government to ban all abortions with no exceptions or almost none, to declare that life begins at conception (thereby offering a legal protection to fetuses not historically extended), and probably, had they been asked, to require prayer in the schools, the teaching of creationism, and the imposition of all kinds of other religious and sectarian views of theirs on all Americans.
Wake up America. Don't be so quick to condemn other countries when you're advocating similar religious and sectarian straightjackets in your own. If you're tolerant then be tolerant. If you claim to want to limit big Government, then don't turn around and try to use big Government to impose your own narrow religious views on others.
