Some comments you might have missed

Several prestigious commenters left important messages at the very bottom of last week's Jesus Camp thread.

(1) UNCLE MOISHY: After CWY swore on a bible that the first ammendment would forever protect the millions of Jews [*] who attend public school from being forced to worship Jesus our funny Uncle argued:

CWY's bit about depending on the 1st amendment to overcome the tyranny of a Christian Evangelical majority is, as someone already said, naive. In fact, it seems the Evangelicals have been using the 1st amendment to bolster their position, essentially by claiming that their 1st amendment right to practice religion would be infringed by banning prayer in school, teaching evolution and other scientific heresies, removing religious symbols from public display during xmas-season, etc.

[...]

There is also a... case that the Jewish media has picked up on about Jews in a small town in Delaware who have sued to prevent their kids from having Xtianity shoved down their throats in public school. IIRC, in one incident, a Xtian student leader made a public speech in which she prayed for her Jewish classmate to find the right path. The bottom line for this family is that the lawsuits haven't done them any good and they've had to relocate to Wilmington, the nearest (presumably more tolerant) big city. I have to believe that this is closer to the norm wherever fundamentalist Christians are the majority.

(2) APPLE: Following a few poorly considered remarks from Joe and Akiva about how liberals are corrupting society, Apple said:

"The surrounding culture is a product of the market. People want it, so businesses provide it. No political party is ADVOCATING it."

With this remark, Apple put his finger on an essential conservative mistake. Conservative like to pretend that liberals are in favor of smutty adverts, and violent video games, but in reality they favor nothing but freedom and tolerance. The smutty ads and violent video games offend us, too, but we'd rather live in a world that has them, then a world where conservative Christian overlords have the power to impose their beliefs and practices on us.

If you think it couldn't happen, go visit that town in Delaware. Or listen closely the next time someone like Dobson or Ihofe speaks.

[*] Yes, millions. We have 5 million Jews in America, and only about 300,000 children in Jewish schools. Where are the rest?