Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Kingdom (or tent) of God

I was reading with my husband about a sort of demonstration on Penn campus. It's really a Christian group that has opened up a 24/7 prayer tent in the middle of campus so that members of the campus community can come and share their prayer requests and have someone pray for them if they want (they can also sing songs, play bongos and cast their sins in a bucket). It's a very hokey concept, but hey, anything that promotes prayer can't be bad, right? Well, many among the campus have directed their attacks toward this tent and are criticizing it on the grounds that the school lawn should not be littered with religious propaganda, especially one that includes one religion (Christianity) and excludes others. It upsets me that people get so upset over a very passive method of religious expression (Do I have to bring up the Constitution?). It's simply available to those who are interested in stopping by and not intended to be exclusive. In fact, it is open to the general public. Why is it that the majority of people are so close-minded and strict about the need to be univerally inclusive, to the point that there is absolutely no tolerance for minority opinions?

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