St. Maarten Private Eye

Here are the two articles you refer to.

Daily Herald Editorial - From within - 5th January 2007

Speak up, Governor tells spiritual leaders - 4th January 2007

First of all, let me say that I think you are correct when you say religion is a personal thing, that you do no need to go to church to have belief or morals. My thoughts are the same and from my point of view, that is where the problem is. I firmly believe in the seperation of religion and government, not just Christian but also other religions and SMUMF's objective is the opposite.

I guess I really subscribe to the ideas put forwards by Richard Dawkins, in that whilst there is a good argument that the church can play a positive role in bringing people and communities together, there are also other means and non religious organisations and social programs that can do the same thing. SMUMF do not want St. Maarten to be a secular society, they want it to be a christian society and they want it inserted into the New Status documents.

This means excluding those of other beliefs and forcing one particular point of view upon them all. Whilst I respect that you may choose not to work on a Saturday or Sunday, or Christmas Day, because of your beliefs, why should I be held to those beliefs too? I can respect them and those who wish to follow those lines, but I object to being forced to myself.

You are also right when you mention about Claude and other politicians not being church going, except when it is a special event and I would say that many of them do so because it will help them win votes. There are many people that use religion as a tool, that use it to reinforce the impression they are moral when clearly they are not.

SXM churches are not regulated it seems to me, there are plenty of frauds and plenty of extremists who basically preach hate and intolerance. Do you remember when Dwight Barran was forced from the Cole Bay Community Council? One of the main reasons behind it was that he didn't attend church often enough. The End is Nigh, but the church still wants your money.

If the only reason some people can find to be moral is a fear of god and hell, then they seriously have a problem. I do not fear either and my morals are most certainly stronger than many church goers and pastors. Rather than use this fear to impose morality I think the better solution is to reinforce and build social programs and care, to vastly boost education and to fix our dysfuctional laws, law enforcement and correction facilities and departments. Praying will not fix it as so many letters to the papers claim.

Private belief is fine with me, but there are plently of extremists and they are the problem. Messages like that given by Fritz and the Herald only boosts and inspires those people. If left to run to freely, such people, like the extremists of Islam, would want to see me stoned or locked up. Whilst I agree that churches could and should be playing a stronger role in their communities, I think the rise in crime and immorality is a result of the failures of Govt, in the past and now.

I really can't stay right now to write more, though I have much more to say. I did find these videos of a discussion on CNN a few days ago about Muslims, religious extremism and the problems in the US in regards to religion quite interesting, maybe you will too.

Cenk Uygur on CNN - 4th January 2007

Flipper

PS.

By coincidence on the radio right now is an interview with a man who got shot in the leg at a gas station. He is praising God that he was saved, that he didn't die. Personnaly, I would be extremely pissed off at god for me getting shot in the first place. Sorry, but it's things like this that make me laugh.