Good news. From the front page of what passes as a newspaper in my hometown came the following yesterday morning:
"Saying the government has not always paid enough attention to religious discrimination, the country's top law enforcement official picked a gathering of Southern Baptist leaders in Nashville on Tuesday to announce a renewed push to protect religious freedoms.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the establishment of a new Religious Freedom Task Force and stepped up enforcement efforts.
"One of our most cherished freedoms ... is our religious liberties," Gonzales told the gathering of about 100 Southern Baptists at the denomination's national headquarters in downtown Nashville. "Nothing defines us more as Americans."
But, he said, religious discrimination is "an area of law that has not always been given sufficient attention by our government."
The Department of Justice's "First Freedom Project" will review religious discrimination complaints, hold seminars to educate religious leaders about how to file complaints and launch a Web site with information on religious liberty laws, Gonzales said."
Update: Troutfishing posted a similar story on this. If this interests you, please check that out.
Those of us who are familiar with the lack of civil rights enforcement action from this administration, as well as the concommitant staff cuts at the DOJ, can now stop wondering what the DOJ is doing with all of its money. There is even a bright, shiny new website with all sorts of information on how to combat religious discrimination in your housing, workplace, neighborhood, community, and school. And all of this is good.
What is troubling, of course, is the choice of forum in which Gonzales chose to make this splash -- the Southern Baptist Convention. The SBC just about is God in these parts, and in many others, as well. Equally troubling was the example that Gonzales chose to illustrate the sorts of deep, systemic problems to be uprooted by this Task force:
"Why should it be permissible for an employee standing around the water cooler to declare that ‘Tiger Woods is God,’ but a firing offense for him to say ‘Jesus is Lord’?" he said to vocal affirmation from Executive Committee members. "These are the kinds of contradictions we are trying to address."
I suppose this problem does arise somewhere. But in the office building where I work, a comment like that one would shortly result in a large prayer meeting around the xerox machine, and those of us whose sprituality takes a different form would be outside on the steps with the smokers.
In Gonzales' remarks to the SBC (and sprinkled throughout the DOJ website) are references to the freedom of religion's status as "the first freedom." This ignores, of course, that the first part of that first freedom -- the establishment clause -- is essentially a guarantee against government involvement in and intrusion upon the personal spiritual beliefs of the individual. This clause reflects the animating spirit found throughout the Bill of Rights, which is the protection of minorities from the tyranny of the majority.
And so the Department of Justice, which is the agency largely responsible for enforcing the laws that protect the rights of those who are without sufficient power in the political arena to protect themselves, goes boldly forward -- making the world safe for majorities everywhere.