Logic gets its fingernails pulled out

By John Bertosa

From Webster's Dictionary:
torture. 3: distortion, overrefinement or perversion of a meaning, argument, or a line of thought or reasoning.

Now, liberals love to use the phrase "freedom from religion" but that is simply being overly dramatic. No one is forcing them to adopt a religion, to get down and pray at the call of an imam or face imprisonment, or be required to go to temple on Saturday or church on Sunday. What they mean is "freedom from religious speech."
Well, too bad.
America doesn't operate like that. It emphasize the speaker's right, not the listener's right. And our society does that in every other aspect of Freedom of Speech.
If an evangelical sees a library display about Gay Pride Day, the government doesn't order it taken down when the evangelical says "Ooooh I'm offended," when a military veteran sees another patriot burning the American Flag on the town square he can't count on the government stepping in on behalf of the offended party.
But liberals counter there is no double standard.They say that it is two separate situations because unlike other forms of free speech the U.S. Constitution has set up a separation of church and state.
Wrong.
Here is exactly what the Constitution says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,"
That's ALL it says.It does NOT say anything about a separation of church and state. It says NOTHING specifically about religious speech. And it definitely does NOT say anything about freedom from religion.
The clause stems from King Henry VIII abandoning the Catholic Church so he could get a divorce. He ESTABLISHED A RELIGION -- the Church of England, setting himself up as head of the church as well as head of state. Archbishops and other church leaders could be picked by the King or Queen and a proportion of bishops get to sit in the House of Lords.
To connect that situation to a librarian voluntarily putting up a Christmas tree or nativity scene for her 5,000 patrons is utterly and completely tortured logic. A person would have to pass over a lot of steps to connect buying a $10 plastic light-up Jesus to establishment of a religion. It's pull-out-fingernails, electric-shocks-to-the-nipples torture.
As for the thought that government funding equals endorsement, well you might as well strap logic to The Rack while Barbra Streisand music blares all night long.
The government gives tax money to all sorts of groups not because they are seeking to endorse a certain way of life but because public groups should have some access to the public's money. The government made February Black History Month and provides some funding for related educational programs in schools and libraries. That does not mean government is establishing that skin color as America's official skin color.
And on an individual level, someone celebrating Black History Month should not be accused of an unwillingness to acknowledge the trials and success of those with other skin colors. Just as someone who says Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukah is not showing an unwillingness to consider other viewpoints. Maybe, just maybe, they are hoping someone has a happy holiday like the well-wisher has experienced in the past.
Congress is clearly forbidden by the Constitution from passing a law demanding a City Hall or library put up a manger but they should not be prevented from voluntarily doing it because that would be a violation of their freedom of speech.
So here's hoping liberals set logic free like they are trying to do with their political prisoners at Gitmo and support a nativity scene on Public Square as graciously as they defend a public museum hanging a Mapplethorpe photograph of someone urinating into another's mouth.