Here comes the poor, oppressed John Hostettler, trying to make the United States safe for the Christianesque. An article in the Courier Press discusses Hostettler’s “Public Expression of Religion Act.” Hostettler resolutely refuses to understand the difference between government speech and private speech. When schools and local governments get sued for pushing indicia of Christianity on the public, including the non-Christian public, they get sued under the Establishment Clause. Hostettler doesn’t like the Establishment Clause, so he deliberately (or possibly ignorantly, but I doubt it) conflates restrictions on government speech with restrictions on private speech.
Apparently Hostettler’s website, for which I do not have the stomach this morning, has an info-mercial like “interview” between Hostettler and his spokesman Matthew Faraci:
“This year, it seems that Christmas has become controversial.” He wrapped up the introduction by saying if Tiny Tim grew up to be an elected official in the United States, he could be sued for saying “God Bless us every one.”
Faraci asked: “Why have our laws been twisted to prevent public officials from their right of free speech? And can anything be done to restore that right?”
Hostettler’s answer is that yes, that right can be restored if his colleagues pass PERA, which would end the ability of the American Civil Liberties Union to recoup legal fees when it wins cases on governmental religious displays.
He says that some officials back away from religious displays that are constitutional because of the fear of being sued.
When Faraci began to interview Hostettler, Faraci asked about the Tiny Tim analogy: “That’s not an exaggeration, is it?”
“No, Matthew, not at all, the current threat to public officials is real, it’s ongoing,” Hostettler said. “It is a problem that needs to be addressed in Washington, D.C.”
I’m really pretty tired of the persecution complex from the Christianesque. I’m trying to be careful recently to separate these loud political types from true Christians. I have a great deal of respect from true Christians who I see as the folks who draw strength from their faith, listen to the teachings of Christ, and try to do some good in the world. The Christianesque talk a lot about being Christians, but mainly for the purpose of taking offense at the slightest pretext. Seemingly such folks are more concerned about tending to the faith of others than to their own.
If Hostettler is not being disingenuous, then I am a bit frightened by our elected representative’s inability to distinguish between government speech and private speech. We saw the same thing from Representative Bosma when Judge Hamilton made a ruling about what sorts of religious speech was permissible from the Speaker’s podium as official House business.
One of the things that is so annoying about the “look at me” grandstanding of the Christianesque is that it falsely creates the impression that Christians are mostly occupied with whining about how persecuted they are. The reality is that most Christians are humbly trying to follow the example set by Jesus and to make the world a better place. But you would never know that from the amount of ink spilt on guys like Hostettler and Bosma.
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