The statuette in the picture for today was a gift to Margaret from her Estonian friend Imbi Friedberg who knew something about suffering. Her parents were murdered by Stalin. She survived the Second World War in Hitler's Germany.ALSO IN AMERICA...

Religious extremism in Afghanistan and Iraq is removed in time little more than three hundred years from the same kind of barbarism in American history. This week I have been unable to get out of my mind and heart the gruesome images of women and men being stoned to death this month in Afghanistan and the story of a young woman sentenced to be stoned to death in Iran. In a BLOG essay a couple of days ago I mentioned a stoning that took place in a remote village after local mullahs condemned and sentenced a young couple for choosing to love each other.

Murders in our country were not carried out by Muslims or Jews. Christian citizens were accused of witchcraft, Christians represented the accused and the accusing church argued their cases before Christian judges. Over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, but only 19 of those accused, fourteen women and five men, were hanged. One man who refused to speak on his own behalf and enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stoned in an attempt by Christian authorities to force him to do so. Seven others died in prison.

Here is what happened: For a short time during the last decade of the seventeenth century, the town of Salem in Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Boston mixed politics and religion. The accounts of what happened at Salem are presented clearly in American high school textbooks. American History is a course required for graduation in virtually all American school districts, so in theory all Americans should know the stories. Yet we have thousands, perhaps millions, of people in the United States who express the belief that civil law should be influenced and perhaps determined by religious principles and beliefs.

I don’t know anyone who would like to establish a special court of Oyer (to hear) and Terminer (to decide), the court established in Salem to address the “witchcraft” problem; but I do know people who say they believe same gender persons should not be allowed to marry because of a couple of passages of “holy” scripture. I know several people who believe it would be appropriate for the Ten Commandments to be displayed on courthouse walls in America. Of course, those examples of the blending of church and state in San Diego where I live won’t lead to public stonings or hangings or beheadings or burnings at the stake. We are a much more civilized people than that. Our legal deprivations have always been genteel... and for the “good of the people.” Our persecutors are much more subtle in their infliction of pain. As fifty-two percent of voters in California did with Proposition 8, AMERICAN PERSECUTORS ATTEMPT TO SHAPE THE LAW to deprive citizens of basic rights. My son in law send me a tongue-in-cheek e-mail today explaining why gay marriage should not be allowed in America.

THE REASONS Gay marriage doesn’t make sense because…..
1.   Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2.   Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3.   Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.
4.   Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5.   Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6.   Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7.   Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8.   Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9.   Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.