TRI In The News
Fundie Christian Hegemony Strikes Again
7/22/2011
TRI IN THE NEWS: FUNDIE CHRISTIAN HEGEMONY STRIKES AGAIN
From Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Original blog post available here.
The Washington Post has an appalling article about how the fundamentalist Christians in a Virginia community are trying to destroy religious freedom for anyone but themselves. Laura George wanted to build an "interfaith retreat" in Grayson County but the local wingnuts killed the project.
Last year, prayer groups sprang up to stop her after the county planning commission unanimously approved her proposal for an interfaith retreat with a "Peace Pentagon" spiritual education center, public library and 10 cabins for guests. So many people filled the board of supervisors' hearing that the panel had to move into a courtroom upstairs. After pastors and others spoke at the hearing, many warning that it was anti-Christian, a cult and a threat to the community, the board killed the project.
To his credit, John Whitehead of the Rutherford Foundation is representing George in a lawsuit against the county.
It's clearly a violation of the First Amendment, said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties group that is helping George.
"There's just a lot of hate out there. The fear that someone like this coming into the county with 10 cabins on the water is going to do something dramatic to the community . . . this is part of the religious wars we're seeing, no doubt about that," he said.
And this is what separates the Rutherford Center from other Christian legal groups like the American Center for Law and Justice, Liberty Counsel and the Alliance Defense Fund -- they defend religious freedom, period, not just religious freedom (or religious authoritarianism, in some cases) for Christians. This is one big reason why I still respect Whitehead while disagreeing with him on some things (like his support for John Freshwater) -- the other big reason being his principled opposition to the Bush national surveillance state and torture regime.
The county commission claims that it acted on solely secular concerns, but those who rallied against the project can't help but show why that is a lie:
Not so, said Jim Guynn, the attorney for Grayson County. "We don't discriminate at all, much less on the basis of religion," he said.
Besides, he said, "it's not clear to me that it is a religion. Mrs. George has always defined it as an educational center."
Guynn said that speakers also raised concerns about zoning and property values at the public hearing and that those were what the board voted on. George said she might have events such as weddings occasionally but planned to have only 20 parking spaces. If people parked along the narrow road, it would be difficult to get an ambulance or firetruck in, Guynn said...
"I'm glad it didn't come," Rhonda James of Mouth of Wilson said. She added that everyone she knows opposed the Oracle Institute because, they believe, it seems to question the word of God in the Bible. "I'm a Christian, fundamentalist Christian, and so are most people in the area."
It's a lot like what happens when some school board puts in creationism -- no matter how much the lawyers tell them not to reveal their religious motivations, they just can't help themselves.
