A Smoker’s Prayer?

Religionists can’t see that. They confuse “the right to pray in public” with “the government, or its representative, making everyone pray in public.” The government, or its representatives, including teachers, principals, jail clerks, chaplains (which are a violation by their very existence, but that’s another essay), judges, elected officials, football coaches, or dog catchers, has no business telling me anything about religion, or to practice or not practice it. Nor does any government facility, including stadiums, have a responsibility to turn over their public address system for the purpose of practicing an exclusionary event with the primary purpose of making non-participants feel unwelcome, whether that be a prayer or an admonition against one.

Keep Your Prayer and Smoke Out Of My Face

Getting back to the smoking issue, I’d agree that smokers should be responsible for their own health, if only the tobacco companies hadn’t lied and lied and lied about tobacco’s harmful effects. I’ve never known a chocolate company to deny that certain people might have negative reactions to their products. Yes, there are those little warning labels, forced on packs by the government, but their attitudes often provide evidence that many smokers are in denial, convincing themselves it’s just more government trying to take away their rights, forcing “politically correct” behavior on those poor tobacco companies. Let’s talk about really taking responsibility: let’s talk about the world’s biggest group of drug pushers, targeting children with advertising, lying about the effects of their drugs, taking responsibility for murdering thousands through deception. Tobacco companies are culpable, and it’s time they pay up. Of course, considering the millions that have died in religion-based conflicts, there’s an even bigger group ducking responsibility, but one step at a time.