Reply #112: Heh heh, funny you should mention peyote....

[countryjake]

I agree with most all you've said here, but I think what you don't get from lots of these responses, is that the USA operates under a Judeo-Christian dominance & it always has, no matter what the founders intended. It is a government founded under a principle of hierarchy rather than harmony & our First Amendment neither allows the government to establish any religion nor can it prevent (supposedly) anyone from exercising religious practices.

Historically & right up to this day, the USA has denied the rights of peoples whose spirituality is directly bound to their identity...no First Amendment rights for those whose culture recognizes the value of the whole, rather than the importance of an individual; no freedom of religion for those who feel that all of nature itself is sacred rather than ridiculous manmade trinkets; no respect for those who prefer to worship in an unspoiled, undefiled ancient sanctuary rather than some massive ton of brick & stone, assembled to honor invisible gods; no recognition of a religion without organization, language, or boundaries.

Ideally, a secular society could also be pluralistic & respectful of diversities within its population. Unfortunately, the dominance of monotheism & its spirit of striving for perfection to attain salvation, (ironically, in another world) by its very nature, denies the acknowledgement of any cultures who do not support that end.

I was originally skeptical of France's new law, as I can't help but think of all the Native American children whose braids & headdresses were whacked off, in the push to civilize & educate them in the ways of the American Constitution & Jefferson's wall of separation. Christians are apt to persecute those who wrap their spirituality in their very appearance & I'll be interested to see if France can uphold that law & eliminate the pervasion of ALL religious symbolism in their public schools. Upholding a double-standard, as they do here, achieves nothing.