Have you ever noticed how some people will rationalize like crazy in order to get their way? Probably all of us do it, to one degree or another.
Sometimes, perhaps most of the time, it's wrong. And one of the examples of when it's wrong is when the result serves to violate the law. But this is done all the time, too. And one group guilty of this is the theists.
Before I moved to Utah, I lived in the southeastern area of Pennsylvania. On one day, I had cause to visit the county courthouse. Though I'd driven past the building on many occasions, I'd never gone inside before. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to the front door and saw a bronze plaque of The Ten Commandments bolted to the wall.
This was clearly a violation of Church/State separation. This was a government building and such a display simply didn't belong there.
An exchange of letters with the County Commissioner's office showed their own rationalizations. They said (among other things) that it was a secular display and located among other such secular displays.
Pure rubbish, of course, on both counts. The Ten Commandments cannot, in any way, be considered a secular document, not when the first four have to do only with religion. That's forty percent of the document, after all. Secondly, there were no secular displays anywhere near the plaque.
I was really looking forward to pursuing this further, to be honest. Unfortunately, it never happened. Just after this, a family emergency caused me to move to Utah.
But while I had to let the Commandments issue fall by the wayside, I soon found plenty of issues locally to get worked up about.
For example, my significant other works in retail. One day, she mentioned something to me that I found appalling. She told me that it was the store's policy to give a discount on certain merchandise to missionaries. (Here in Mormon country, there are lots of missionaries, as you might guess.) In fact, her company and others actually advertise missionary discounts in the Yellow Pages! I just couldn't believe it. Then I realized that these companies were probably not aware that they were breaking the law.
So I wrote more letters. I educated the business owners, explaining that the practice was illegal, even providing copies of Utah ordinances against such things, as well as the relevant portions of the federal Civil Rights Act.
Only one company ever responded to me. The one my girlfriend works for, in fact. But their reply was not at all to my liking. They conceded that it was wrong of them to advertise such a discount, even admitted that it was wrong to have the discount at all. But they only said they'd stop advertising it in the telephone pages ads, not discontinue the discount itself. They went on at length about how so many businesses do this, and how they don't just give the discounts to Mormons, but to any clergy members. (This is due, I'm sure, to the fact that they're not Mormon themselves.)
Rationalizations abound. It's "okay" for the Ten Commandments to be posted on a county courthouse because some of the Commandments can be interpreted as being similar to some of our own laws. It's "okay" to offer discounts to missionaries and other clergy because everyone else does it.
It's all rubbish. It's all just a promotion of religion, pure and simple. It's discriminatory and hurtful and simply wrong. And I, for one, will continue to fight against it in any way I can.
