Friday, March 17, 2006

The Framers and the Faithful

As all of the discussion about angels in public parks rolls along here in the Oshkosh blogosphere, I post this interesting article from the Washington Monthly about evangelicals and separation of church and state in the 18th century.

History has reared its head, as it often does, in these debates as we argue over original intents. This article speaks to that--ending with an interesting moment when Republicans in the Virginian house recently tried to amend their state consititution to remove Jefferson's language separating church and state.

"The Framers and the Faithful" by Steven Waldman

1 comment:

tony palmeri said...

Jody,

Could you explain how the angel statue issue is like the Indian mascot? In the latter, the majority culture exploits and often distorts minority culture symbols for purposes defined by the majority culture. That's not what is happening in the angel statue situation.

Forgive me for not yet attaining your level of clarity on this matter. The question of whether the angel is an exclusively Christian symbol (or even a religious symbol at all given the popular culture appropriation of it) is one that is still open to me. To ponder that question does not make me guilty of trivialization and acceptance, or display a value system that is "arbitrary" and based on "personal comfort."