Thursday, April 07, 2022

A curious thing happened in the New York Times online. Or am I confusing explicit and implicit, as well as editorial vs. news?

 Item:

The Growing Religious Fervor in the American Right: ‘This Is a Jesus Movement’

Rituals of Christian worship have become embedded in conservative rallies, as praise music and prayer blend with political anger over vaccines and the 2020 election.

After first reading the entire item, thinking why it might not have been captioned as an op-ed, the thought came: word search.

Curiously, the entire thing was written with the words "white" and "Democrat" missing, while "Republican" showed up three times. 

The haunting question, did these authors need to state "white" or did they see a greater impact in their aims by not doing so?

Were their aims "news?"

As a thought experiment, if one were to found "The First Church of Jesus With White People Better," how might a hate-claim litigation filing against it be resolved if it reaches this current Supreme Court? The claim being the foundational rock of the faith is that it is a matter of religious freedom to believe one race superior, others inferior. Calling such a thought "a religion" makes it so, belief being the key determinant? The State should not infringe nor impede?

Can nine in black robes tell me such a belief is wrong, were I a true believer in it being correct? Does "freedom of religion" mean something else, something less?

Something more? 

Good people on both sides?

To some the anti-establishment clause means freedom from religion. Are they wrong?