By Peter Molenaar
Is it possible that the spirit of a fourteen-year-old Pakistani girl has touched all of us? Malala Yousafzai faced down death for her cause. Eventually, a Taliban bullet did crease her skull and traverse her face. At the time, even this “non-believer” closed his eyes and bowed his head.
“Stop burning down our schools, let us learn, we are human beings”, say the teenaged girls who now defiantly conduct their vigils. They stand openly against Taliban law and its violent enforcement. “Silence is no longer an option”, they tell us.
Constitutional reminder (USA):
“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”¦”. ”˜Separation of church and state”˜ is derived from this clause.
Meanwhile the local archbishop appears as a leading opponent of same-sex marriage.
We respond – do keep your own flock in order as pleases you, sir. However, there are numerous religious groups around the world which practice same-sex marriage. To name a few, these would be Quakers, Episcopalians, Reform Jews, Unitarian-Universalists, and Native Americans with a two-spirit tradition. Clearly, those who uphold the “Marriage Amendment” would suppress religious freedom indefinitely.
But truthfully, there is a deeper aspect. If institutional discrimination is perpetuated, how many more young spirits would then be crushed beneath the bully culture? How many more teenagers would commit suicide as a result? Will Taliban law be imposed upon us all?
No, no”¦ Sweet dreams, all”¦ Malala lives!
