I have a personal dilemma, and if you're concerned with the state of the individual's freedom, it should be yours too. Let's say the powers that be decided that religion was bad, how do you go about enforcing what's good for people without infringing upon their freedom of belief and their consequent freedom to express that belief? Some say the answer is to ridicule religion out of existence, but I'm not so sure I agree with that, fun though it may be. From what I've seen, the more you ridicule, the more the ridiculous people's f-ed up belief systems get. For example, when you point out the facts of evolutionary science, the fundies will tell you it's all part of a Luciferian (Satanic) conspiracy. When you point out other things that are obvious, they revert back to the old, "You're a reprobate and lack the spiritual powers of discernment". Ughh! What do you do? What can you do, especially since many of these inmates are running the asylum?

                                          Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins believe that in order for mankind to survive, religion must go and refer to liberals and moderates as "enablers", allowing for dangerous fundy beliefs to flourish and propagate, but is this necessarily true? To me, that's like calling a responsible gun owner an enabler of criminals or a responsible pet owner an enabler of animal overpopulation. Here's what I think may be some guides to future actions that may help without infringing upon people's freedoms.

                                           Make churches more accountable for their tax free status. I mean how these fundy idiots got up the 27 million bucks to fund a museum of lunacy is beyond me. Perhaps if the government was a little more astringent on who they give a 501-C3 to, maybe it might spawn a little fiscal responsibility. If a church is offering things like shelter and a soup kitchen for the indigent, then yes, they deserve some tax exemptions, but a recording studio, an Escalade for the pastor and a sanctuary that covers 5 city blocks??? C'mon! You're obviously raking in the bucks, cough up some of that cash, reverend! Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, he didn't drive a Hummer.

                                           Keep the fundies out of the public school system. You have to watch these idiots. They'll sneak scripture reading and prayer in ways that would astound a CIA or NSA spy. I have a fundy relative that's a teacher and she's finally decided that she'll go into the mission fields in Africa, which is great news for this side of the pond, but when she taught public school, she would do things like during the time they outlawed prayer in favor of a moment of silence. would say things like, "This is your time, boys and girls, to reflect on what YOU think is important. What I like to do during this time is to pray to God for a good day and be thankful for what Jesus has done in my life." She was skirting right on the edge of the law, but not quite breaking it and since she was teaching in the Bible Belt, she got away with it. These are the Godzombies you have to watch out for, the ones with just enough intelligence and education to make them dangerous.

                                               Put liberal and moderate theologians right on the front line. Put them in the Southern Baptist Convention, among other fundy organizations, in fact there are some there and they've made attempts at things like attempting to re interpret scripture to curb the misogyny and homophobia and have been met with hateful resistance, but not without some little bit of progress. Before we get discouraged, we need to remember that this action is like cutting down a redwood with a pocket knife. We can't expect a breakthrough overnight.

                                               Feel free to add suggestions if you like, but remember the goal here is not to infringe upon anyone's freedom or constitutional rights. I don;t think another amendment or change in the law is necessary, just vigilance from those concerned and education.

                                               Personally I would like to see a future where one could keep the trappings of their traditional family faiths if they wish as well as the labels of Baptist, Methodist, whatever, without the madness of stupid doctrines and insane theologies. Religion has morphed and changed throughout the centuries and will continue to do so, yet I don't think it's going to die, or really should as some people need it to keep their lives together which brings me to another step in this platform. Let's offer them a better alternative. Any suggestions?