[Posted here on 13 January 2008, nine years ago today]
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ne of the things that irritate me—and there are many—is the
way certain people seem to think that they are privileged to do things to
others that would annoy the hell out of them if the situation were the other
way around. Like distributing bibles at school, for example. People who would
be horrified if their little angel came home from school carrying her brand new
Koran or The God Delusion under her
arm claim to see no problem with sending other people’s kids home with a Gideon
Bible. “But it’s the Bible,” they
exclaim, with much arm-waving and gesticulation, as though that somehow made
things better. Maybe so, but remember, it's somebody else’s Necromonicon, and
their horror is no different from your horror.
Not that I have a lot of sympathy with people who want to be
protected from running into ideas they may find uncomfortable. There are lots
of them out there, and one way or another we all have to develop thick hides to
protect us from somebody else’s notions of reality.
But there are many times when a little peace and quiet are
appropriate, and as a bus rider myself, I feel strongly that people should be
prepared to shut up rather than disturb other passengers. This especially
applies to people who seem to think that it is appropriate to read from their
chosen text, whether it be from the Bible or from a syndicated advice
columnist, in a loud carrying tone, just in case there are people at the other
end of the bus who can’t hear it.
Which brings me to this story: A Fort Worth woman is claiming
religious discrimination because she was asked not to read to her children from
her Bible in a loud voice while riding the bus. When she refused to desist a
supervisor came and escorted her off the bus, then drove her and her children
to their church, allowing her to read on the trip as loudly as she liked. This
woman is now demanding an apology. “She said in her mind, what happened this
past weekend was religious persecution, and she refuses to go along for the
ride.” Her representative, a person from the Liberty Legal Institute,
proclaims:
I’m extremely shocked that a bus driver would pull over and take
time out of his busy schedule in order to kick off a lady and her two kids
while they’re trying to read the Bible on their way to church…. They should be
ashamed of that.
Richard L. Ruddell, president of the bus company, however,
sets the matter straight:
It was not what she was reading, it was the very loud and
disruptive volume. She was asked to lower her voice, but refused. Other
passengers on the bus were looking to the driver for proper enforcement of the
rules.
This driver acted in a very courteous and professional manner to
properly deal with the situation. The T, as a public transit authority, has no
policy against reading any type of material on the bus. Only when behavior of a
passenger reaches an extreme volume, such as in this case, is a supervisor
called.
On this same excursion into Internetland I turned up this
story:
BEIJING - A Chinese Christian businessman has been released from
detention after police grabbed him from his home in the early morning hours
over a month ago, says his wife. Zhang Jing said her husband, 37-year-old Shi
Weihan, was set free on January 4 after being held in a cell for 37 days, the
legal limit in China before formal charges have to be filed. He was arrested on
November 28, while his two young daughters cowered in their bedroom, for “illegally”
publishing Bibles and Christian literature for distribution in home churches.
His family had been worried he would be sentenced to at least five years.
Now that sounds more like persecution to me.
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