riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (08/07/84)
[Re the judge who was reputedly opposed by NOW because he was a Mormon:]
Wait a minute -- did NOW say, "He's a Mormon, so he must be biased," or
did they look at his rulings and find Mormon bias in them? There's
quite a difference. I don't object to the fact that James Watt was a
Christian, but I definitely object to James Watt's pursuit of certain
policies because he believed God had told him to sell off federal
lands.
Judges should be free to follow any religion they choose, but when they
step up on that bench, they have to follow the law. If they can't
reconcile that with their religious beliefs, they shouldn't accept the
job (or should disqualify themselves from those cases where there is a
conflict, assuming they are few).
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddlefred@varian.UUCP (Fred Klink) (08/15/84)
Regarding Prentiss Riddle's comments on the Mormon judge and NOW-- I would go one step further: I object to James Watt's (for example) policies because *I disagree with them*. I don't care if their origin is religious conviction or pragmatic economic thinking. We all carry our biases and prejudices in every thing we think and do. The basis of democracy is to allow the biases and prejudices of the majority to be used in governing a nation. The point is, our system has a means for removing those public figures we disagree with: the vote. When we begin to accept other systems (e.g. "throw the bum out, he's a born-again Christian and bases policy on his religion!"), we are truely in trouble. Fred Klink (Varian, Walnut Creek CA)
rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (08/16/84)
>Regarding Prentiss Riddle's comments on the Mormon judge and >NOW-- I would go one step further: I object to James Watt's >(for example) policies because *I disagree with them*... Right. Religion DOES become an issue for me when Watt (again, for example) tries to justify his actions on the basis of religion. At that point, I say that he's out of his role as a public official. I don't care what his private beliefs are, but they're not what he should be using to justify his actions. (This is a particularly sore point wrt non-elected officials.) -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.
ab3@pucc-h (Rich Kulawiec) (08/16/84)
Uh, Fred, can I point out that we didn't *elect* James Watt in
first place, making a recall vote sort of difficult...
--
---Rsk
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