Public Display of Religious Doctrines

PUBLIC DISPLAY OF RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES

The specific issue in the news today is regarding whether or not to display the 10 commandments in our governmental buildings or any religious doctrine in a public place. One has to be honest about what one wants it to accomplish to determine whether or not it is helpful and also necessary.

Here is a simple example. The love we have in our minds and hearts for our children cannot be shown or displayed to anyone else. A picture of them is but a suggestion to others that we love them. Yet, a child molester could just as easily plaster pictures of their ‘beloved’ one all over their office. My point is obvious. The display itself is really meaningless; it is in the reason behind the public display and the meaning that we as observers give to it, that is really the issue here. Beauty is not the only thing that is in the eye of the beholder! All meaning is in it.

As far as the intention behind the display; do those who are adamant about having the 10 Commandments very visible and other such things need to ‘see to believe’? Or maybe they feel the need to show others that they believe? If a person is truly spiritual, they realize that the love of God is written on the hearts of each person; whether or not it is written on some wall somewhere else just doesn’t matter. Those who fight to have religious pictures or sayings in public places need to think about the purpose they are hoping to have it serve.

On the other hand, if the purpose is honestly to remind us of our historical religious background as a nation and it is thus perceived by onlookers as such, then let it be in that spirit that it is displayed, along with other historical documents with or without religious connotations. If they were part of what helped to form the U.S. Constitution, they should be equally displayed.

And those against doing this should honestly examine what it is that offends them about it. Is it offensive to them to represent and display what formed our founding father’s ideas on what an ideal society should be? Keeping in mind, the 10 commandments were an integral part of our founding father’s ideologies but also that our spiritual/religious views are changing and growing, as we as a nation, change and grow with more spiritual understanding and new insights from other paths, which may also some day be up for discussion as to whether or not to publicly display them.

AN ANALOGY
Maybe it would help to look at the government as the company for which you are employed. Your employer might display the original owner’s family picture on the wall who happen to be Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist (you name it) and are wearing some token of one of those beliefs in the photograph or painting. Do we get upset and think “But those are not my kids, nor my beliefs! This means this company is against my kids, and me. I can’t work here, or they have to take those down.”

All those photographs mean is that those people founded the company you work for and that is their photograph. Nothing more and nothing less. It means they are honoring the founding father’s of your employer who is giving you the ability to make a living on a daily basis. One could hardly be angry or object to their right and their desire to place a picture, or maybe even a pledge by them, to you, as an employee or a pledge to uphold the moral standards of their personal belief system in all endeavors.

The point being, there is no wrong or right in regards to the public display of things of a personal or spiritual nature. There is only the balanced or imbalanced interpretation that we give these displays that make the problem. In these interpretations, we see our fears and prejudices. Fear that someone can take away what is forever etched within our hearts. Fear that if it is not displayed for all to see, it doesn’t exist and doesn’t hold true for us. If we are Buddhist in this country, do we feel offended by pictures of Jesus? If we are Christian, should we feel offended by one who wishes to honor Buddha? Both are rightly part of our society and one cannot threaten nor demean the other.

Personally, the whole argument helped me to see that I do hope there is a day when we welcome the representation of all religions in public places, keeping in mind that to honor a religion is not the same as enforcing it. But rather as a show of gratitude for how they helped to build our society in various ways and perhaps at differing stages of our evolution. Although Christianity was our founding father’s religion, it is not the same Christianity that today is unfolding. Today we are learning that all the great religions say the same thing and so to honor one above the other is meaningless. I hope for a day when we don’t feel threatened or in any way bothered by the presence nor the absence of the display of our society’s spiritual paths, knowing that it is in our hearts and minds that we represent them, not in the things we choose to represent them anyway!

So, the only real thing we need to be bothered about in this on going American issue, is our own intentions in the need for display, not the display. We give meaning to what we are viewing. It cannot be the other way around.
Diane L. Perretto