A Few Things

The New York Times explores the California Voting Initiative that I spoke about a week ago. There is some good news.

Amid the accusations and pitfalls, Thomas Hiltachk, the lawyer who drafted the initiative, walked away from the effort, citing ethical concerns about the way the money was raised. His resignation has left the initiative’s future in serious jeopardy, and many Republican consultants around the state are advising their clients and friends to steer clear of the effort, suggesting it will be challenged on constitutional grounds if it passes.

Thank goodness that people realized that what they were doing was Serious Constitutional Business.

On another front, I read something in Salon by Cary Tennis who has a column named “Since You Asked” and was quite disappointed with the answer.

Hi, I am the father of a 13-year-old daughter whose mother has been taking her to an evangelical Christian church her whole life. Her mother's family is entirely Christian. I am not a Christian, and in fact think that organized religion is actively harmful to her development into a rational adult. None of my friends are Christian, nor any of my family.

I can see this is going to be trouble.

As my daughter gets older, however, she has started to become fearful that because I am not a Christian, I am going to hell. When I try to explain my beliefs (that I don't believe in God or a higher power), she cries. I am certainly not trying to deny her mother the right to take her to church, but I don't want to cut my two weekends a month with her short to take her back to her mother's to attend church. Nor do I want her mother telling her that I am going to hell.

That’s a sticky situation. Anyway, what was sad to me was the fact that the column writer basically said that He should lie to his daughter so that everyone gets along.

Her problem is not that she believes in God. It's that she believes you are going to burn in hell when you die. It's her concern for you, and her fear for you, that are the problem. She wants to believe otherwise but has no solid grounds on which to place any hope. If you go to church with her, you will make it possible for her to believe that there is at least a chance that you will not burn in hell.

Cary Tennis is advocating lying to children. Last time I checked, when you lie to a child and then they grow up, they realized that you lied to them and they get pretty upset over that. Not to mention, isn’t there something on some big stone tablets that says you really shouldn’t lie to people? The guy in trouble isn’t going to make his situation any better by pretending to be a Christian.