The California University of Pennsylvania thinks it is legal and reasonable to offer special discounts to members of churches. Why? No one is saying -- apparently this program for privileging local Christians is all about improving attendance at basketball games. And that's supposed to make it OK?
Cal U offered the discount at yesterday's matchup of its women's and men's basketball teams against Millersville University as part of "Faith and Family Night."
"Anyone attending from area churches will be admitted to both games for one $3 ticket -- just mention the church affiliation," states a press release about the event. General admission for others was $5, said Christine Kindl, spokeswoman for Cal U.
"We're trying to find as many different ways as we can to introduce as many different people as we can to what we have going on in our new (Convocation Center)," Kindl said. "(Religion) is a big part of the community in this area, and so that's one of many different kinds of promotions."
Source: Pittsburgh Live
It's true that you can mention any faith-based organization, not just a church, but that doesn't actually make the program more legal. No other public university is interested in privileging religious believers generally or Christians in particular, so why is the California University of Pennsylvania doing it?
Randall Wenger, chief counsel for the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which promotes traditional family values, said religious faith has long been a part of public life and the promotion gave people another context to get to know others in their community.
"If we relegate religion to one of those things that can't be mentioned in public, then it's really taking a large part of our tradition and who we are as people and obscuring that," Wenger said.
Notice how dishonest Randall Wenger is: no one is talking about whether you can "mention" religion in public so why does he bring it up? Because it's a buzz-word that's useful for fooling religious believers and getting them to think that they are being oppressed. Randall Wenger is a lawyer so he definitely knows that the issue is not about "mentioning" religion in public. Ergo, he definitely knows that he's not telling the truth.
Notice also that his "defense" that "religious faith has long been part of public life" is also irrelevant. It's a "defense" without the slightest bit of legal relevance -- and, once again, as a lawyer Randall Wenger definitely knows this. So he knows he's offering a "defense" that's legally irrelevant. So why offer it? Again, it sounds good to religious believers who aren't smart enough to know when they are being lied to.
Randall Wenger is just doing his job, but his job doesn't include being honest or offering legally relevant arguments. His job is public propaganda on behalf of a dishonest religious ideology. His job is to make his religious supremacism more palatable to the public in the expectation that media outlets like the above will simply reprint his nonsense without any sort of investigation or critical questioning.
And of course that's exactly what happened -- the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review isn't capable of anything beyond the superficial "he said / she said" reporting that passes for journalism today. It's an approach that's guaranteed to misinform the public, which is what propagandists like Randall Wenger depend so heavily upon.
No comments:
Post a Comment