Siemon-Netto, research scholar at the Institute on Religion and World Affairs at Boston University, wrote a couple of years ago:
No, this is not about church and state because God’s law spans the universe and literally all faiths. It reaches some of us - Jews, Christians and in large measure Muslims - in the shape of the Decalogue; others have received it in the form of natural law.
More is at stake here than the perennial legal attacks on crèches and menorahs exhibited in public spaces. God is being used as a bogeyman for what the most radical elements of the Me generation really abhor - the “don’ts” that interfere with one’s personal whim of the moment: If we kick out God, these fools believe, we’ll blur what really bothers us - the distinction between right and wrong.
First, it’s important to note that while Uwe Siemon-Netto pretends that this isn’t about church and state, he obviously operates as if a particular conception of a particular god is true. This conception, then, Uwe Siemon-Netto wants the American government to endorse and support via the Ten Commandments — an endorsement which will necessarily exclude every other conception of every other god. Does this bother him? One would think that a “scholar” would be concerned with the discrimination against other religious beliefs, but I suppose Uwe Siemon-Netto is certain that he has a lock on the Truth so other beliefs just don’t matter.
Second, notice how the existence of religious people, including devout Christians, who oppose the government endorsement of the Ten Commandment is dismissed without any real consideration. These are not people who are readily counted as “radical elements of the Me generation,” but then again neither are the atheists and secularists, either. Indeed, Uwe Siemon-Netto’s comment is little more than a personal attack masquerading as thoughtful ideas, just like the rest of his editorial. It’s good that he is no longer religion editor for UPI, the position he held when he wrote the above, but it’s depressing that he managed to hold on to that for so many years.
Christian & Religious Privilege:
Ten Commandments: