The Texas governor's race should prove to be interesting because Kinky Friedman, a popular singer, has decided to run as an independent. His campaign theme seems to be the idea that politics isn't that hard, so the people should trust an honest outsider like himself. Critical thinking and law, however, can be hard and it doesn't look like people should trust him with those things.

KDKA carries a transcript of a 60 minutes interview where he reveals his inaccurate opinions about the separation of church and state:

“The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments being taken out of the public schools. I want them back,” says Friedman.

Why does he assume that they were always there? Duane Smith writes:

I went to public school, including kindergarten, here in California from 1947 to 1960 and I have absolutely no memory of the Ten Commandments ever being mentioned and certainly no memory of them being displayed in either of the two schools I attended. But I went to public school in a large metropolitan school district, so I asked Shirley who attended public school twelve years of public school (they didn’t have a kindergarten when she was in school) in a small, rural town in north eastern Indian, if she remembers anything about the Ten Commandments being part of her public school experience. Her answer was, “no.”

It may be different in Texas or in some other part of the country, but we were never exposed to the Ten Commandment in public school. We got plenty of them in Sunday School. So when I hear someone say anything abut putting the Ten Commandments back in school I find it hard to believe that they are addressing any reality that contacts with my experience. Of course, I suppose the Ten Commandments were in some schools at some time but not in any school I attended. So the one reason that I would not vote for Friedman if I lived in Texas is that he may be delusional about the Ten Commandments in public schools; at least with regard to their being present in public schools in the last sixty years or so.

Too often, when someone wants to “bring back” something, what they are really talking about is trying to make a reality some illusion they have about the past. I wonder, for example, which Ten Commandments Kinky Friedman has in mind above — Protestant? Catholic? Jewish? Some “ecumenical” version written by a government bureaucrat? Why does he think that the government has the authority to single out one of those versions for endorsement and promotion?

“I want them back, they belong there,” says Friedman. “Maybe I’ll have to change their name to the Ten Suggestions, you know. But they were taken out, not by separation of church and state, but by political correctness gone awry. One atheist stands up and says, ‘I don’t like the Ten Commandments,’ and suddenly out they go. And, of course, we all know what happens to an atheist when he dies. His tombstone usually reads, ‘All dressed up and no place to go.’ “

Why does Kinky Friedman think that only atheists object to government endorsement of one religion over others or one religion’s beliefs over others? Kinky Friedman has no conception of the separation of church and state if he really think that a decision about whether a set of religious scriptures are promoted by the government isn’t a church/state issue.

Blonde Sense comments on Kinky Friedman’s senseless opinions:

He supports prayer in the public schools, he says, because the kids ought to believe in something!

Sadly, he doesn’t think that the “something” people believe in is religious liberty for all. What other American liberties would Kinky Friedman eliminate in his quest to abuse elected office in order to impose his preferences on everyone?

I believe in the separation of church and state and school districts are governments and if they mandate moments of silence and such they are advocating that children should pray or adopt a religion. I thought that was the responsibility of parents, not governments. I thought that government was neither a supporter or inhibitor of religion. Religion is such a private matter that I don’t want people who have no training in religion advocating religion to school children. That is the role of religious leaders, not teachers, principals, and school boards.

Sorry Kinky. Your position on school prayer, if implemented, would bring prejudice to classrooms. Do you think that Hindu kids, or Muslim kids, or Jewish kids can stand the taunts and jeers of their Christian classmates? And what of the atheist and agnostic children? You would use government to impose “values”, your values, on them?

It’s unlikely that Kinky Friedman would be any worse than the others running for governor — sadly, it doesn’t seem as though Texas is able to produce sensible politicians these days. The fact that others aren’t worse, however, isn’t a good enough reason to deliberately vote for someone as bad as he is.

 

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Secularism 101
• Church and State News
• Religious Privilege
• Christian Privilege
• Hidden Christian Privileges
• Ten Commandments
• Religion in Public Schools
• School Prayer