[Buddha-l] Buddhist stupa to be moved from NM Petroglyph Park

[Richard Hayes]

On Oct 1, 2012, at 9:14 PM, Christopher Fynn <chris.fynn at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the USA you have some constitutional clause against mixing religion and government - yet religion seems to play a much bigger role in
> politics and government than in other western countries that have no
> such prohibition.

The first amendment to the US constitution says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" and lots of other things. That seems pretty straightforward, but there are many views about what it means. Some evangelical Christians claim the purpose of the amendment was to protect religious organizations from government intrusions. Others think it means that the Congress shall make no laws establishing a religion for the entire United States, but that individual states can have established religions. On that reading, Pennsylvania could be a Quaker state, Massachusetts a Unitarian state, Utah a Mormon state, Florida a Jewish state and Louisiana a Catholic state, but the United States as a whole could never be affiliated with any denomination or any of the world religions.

Some fanatical atheists (of which I am one) interpret the amendment to mean that no religious ceremonies should take place in areas supported by public tax monies, such as national parks or schools. Some fanatical secularists (with whom I do not agree) think that comparative religions should not be taught in public schools.

At my university, which is funded solely by state taxes, a position in Islamic studies was advertised several years ago. The search committee was unable to come to an agreement on who was a suitable candidate, and the search was closed without a hire being made. Some time later, the archdiocese of Santa Fe gave funds for an endowed chair in Catholic studies, but the search was abandoned when members of the faculty of law threatened to sue the university for accepting money from a religious organization. A few years later, the search was resumed, and when the search committee chose an historian of New Mexican Catholicism, the history department refused in principle to accept her because her funding came from the Catholic church. A little later, a Jewish organization offered to sponsor an endowed chair in Jewish studies and then withdrew the offer upon learning that the university could not legally guarantee that the search committee would only consider candidates that are pro-Israel. Nothing about the hiring of experts in religious studies is easy in a university funded by monies raised through taxation. 

I believe the US constitution is a monstrosity from beginning to end, and I would jump for joy if the entire damn thing were put into a shredder. But as long as we have the hideously antiquated document as the law of the land, I guess I'm in favor of trying to honor the first amendment and keeping religion entirely out of the public sphere while ensuring that everyone can worship (or not) exactly as he or she wants in the privacy of the home or in privately owned buildings that do not benefit in any way whatsoever from public monies or from exemption from taxes. And so I believe the Buddhist stupa must go from the land acquired by the National Park Service. 

Richard Hayes