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Obviously its not okay, but it would be dishonest of me to accept that and not reprimand this instance where its due. It also throws my own fight against Mullahs suspect when your country oh so often claims to support secularists in my country. I don't want secularism to be classified as an anti-Muslim movement - or a Christian one.It is "OK" to have a religious state and to have blasphemy laws to suppress and put down all other religions.
But is it not OK for a man who is first and foremost a Christian, a Deacon in his Baptist denomination, having been sworn in as Governor, to then on Martin Luther King Day have him as a Christian all his adult life speak to a Black Baptist Church audience?
His remarks were not broadcast, only some nitwit newspaperman, which newspaper opposed him politically from the start of his race for Governor, tries to take out of context, the setting was inside a church, this alter call to his in person, present at that moment audience?
When I was growing up in Woodmont Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee we used to have then young Governor Frank Clement come preach a sermon about twice a year. Governor Clement was in fact a Methodist, but he was popular with all folks who voted for him from many different backgrounds across Tennessee. And he knew his Holy Bible and gave good sermons, too. You clearly do not understand this concept and that is your problem, not ours.
But he is a powerful person, he is in office and he holds the capacity to be violent... at least to the extent where his brother's might receive nepotism benefits...No, we do not repress anyone from freely expressing their non-violent religious opinions, which expressions are guaranteed in the US Constitution long before anyone in the US ever knew we would develop a large secondary Muslim population and religious community. But the same US Constitution which guarantees Muslims in America freedom of religion and religious speech likewise grants Governor Bentley as a Deacon, a Lay Leader in his Baptist denomination, the right to express his religious convictions and testimoney, concluding with an alter call to those not yet saved in his immediate, physical, inside the church audience.
Which is why the US must set a standard in secularism that countries like Pakistan must strive for. We have similar notions of Muslim brotherhood - thus everyone in Pakistan is a brother or sister except non-Muslims. I have often wondered how that would make my fellow non-Muslim countrymen feel.Our US guaranteed freedoms enable the US to be prosperous and creative which is where the bucks come from to help the developing world, which was and remains the case from my service in Pakistan in the mid 1960s down to today.