Tammy Bruce:
Jesus Named Honorary King ... In Poland. If certain lawmakers get their way. At least Jesus is welcomed somewhere. But you'll never guess who opposes the honor--the Catholic Church in Poland. Go figure.
ABC News:
WARSAW, Poland Dec 20, 2006 (AP)— Lawmakers have drawn up a resolution naming Jesus Christ as the honorary king of Poland, but have failed to win support from the country's powerful Roman Catholic church.
Lawmakers for the ruling Law and Justice party and League of Polish Families as well as the opposition Peasants Party back the resolution, said Szymon Ruman, spokesman for parliamentary speaker Marek Jurek.
Wikipedia - League of Polish Families:
The LPR is strongly against homosexuality, in both its rhetoric and policy objectives. Its youth organization, the All-Polish Youth, has on numerous occasions counter-protested against demonstrations organized by members of homosexual advocacy groups.
As mayor of Warsaw, PiS (The ruling Polish political party) leader Lech Kaczyński refused authorisation for the Equality Parade for gay rights on June 11, 2005 in Warsaw. The Parade took place despite the ban, and eggs, stones and bottles were thrown at the marchers by young people (nearly all men) from the All-Polish Youth (Młodzież Wszechpolska) youth organisation (a youth group associated with the League of Polish Families), with at least two people injured and hospitalized. The organization claims its members merely tried to prevent an illegal march, and that the violence should be condemned.
Now as far as the issue itself - whether Jesus of Nazareth should be named King of Poland - you might argue that the pedigree of the League of Polish Families is neither here nor there. Well, let's go back to Tammy's post.
At least Jesus is welcomed somewhere.
To the best of my knowledge, Jesus has never been officially named an honorary King - or even President - in the United States. So does that mean that he is "unwelcome" here? Or does it mean that we have a nation and a government that recognize separation of church and state?
Much to Tammy's dismay, it seems the Catholic Church itself is not enthusiastic about the idea: 'On Wednesday several bishops criticized it, and said parliament should stay out of religious affairs.' Well, what a novel concept.
Here's the bigger point that I want to get to. A lot of former liberals have become turned-off by the extreme anti-religious zealotry of organizations like the ACLU; they feel that a climate of "political correctness" has unfairly targeted traditional religion - particularly Christianity. They may believe that high-profile liberal activists exaggerate the threat of fundamentalist Christian extremism while ignoring the very real threat of Islamist extremism.
And to a large extent they are right. But this is not sufficient reason (in fact, there is no sufficient reason) to go to the opposite, and equally wrong, extreme by advocating a Christian theocracy. To the great credit of the Catholic Church, it would appear from the bishops' remarks that the Church understands this.
