Soccer Mom: Unplugged

Last night I was up late gunning for some outrageous bloggers and aiming at some outrageous issues.  Some writers are nuts and some issues are nuts.  And last night I wrote about a little of both.  Drawing fire is always fun but I didn't expect to find the gold mine that I did when I ran into Ginny.  (Let me make it clear that I am not calling Ginny outrageous or nutty - in deed, it is the issue we conversed about that is nuts!)

Ginny is clearly a woman who has had a hard life and her views are colored by her experiences.  The same could be said for all of us.  In my honest and most respectful opinion, Ginny's emotions seem to have clouded her judgement on the Free Speech issue.  Here is one of her comments:

"Let me explain one of my problems with public prayer that has a little too much ‘flavor’ to it. I had Seasonal Affective Disorder for 11 years when I lived near Elmendorf AFB in AK. I wasn’t diagnosed until 5 years into it. In spite of a multifaceted, intense treatment protocol, every year it would get worse. I contemplated suicide for years and would not do it because I knew the kids could not be ‘left behind’ in this miserable world if I wasn’t staying. And I wasn’t going to do it if either of them would know for a nanosecond what was coming. Every year I asked, I pleaded. I never rejected Jesus, he never accepted me that I was aware of. The last year when I figured out how to do it, I was going to get the guns and was able to stop myself 1 more time - because of my medical knowledge. That summer I moved and have been fine since. Except when some public prayer reminds me of those awful days and nights, waiting and hoping for an answer that never came.
So, forgive me, I’ve been through hell, and I’m a born again Secular Humanist."

According to Ginny's logic, military chaplains should not be able to invoke the name of Jesus because she has Seasonal Affective Disorder?  Okay, that's an oversimplistic interpretation.  Is it then, that because Ginny has felt disillusioned with her Christian faith and now feels uncomfortable with preachers of a belief she does not espouse that she refuses to allow them first amendment rights? 

Is there a clearer example out there of the philosophy "Free speech sould be protected... as long as it is speech I like"? 

In Ginny's defense, she also makes the following statement:

"All I, and most of the rest of us, ask: is that SOME Christians turn the volume down on their public comments"

I can respect that sentiment but that goes both ways.  When are television shows and movies going to stop denegrating people of faith?  When does that broad brush that you detest going to stop painting me as an abortion clinic bomber?  When will people stop assuming that I am a homophobic bigot because I believe that God ordained a pattern for families?  Tell, me Ginny, when?  If you've traveled in academic circles, you know just how browbeaten believers are.  You can't mention any allegiance to faith without a caveat or disclaimer so that people think you aren't too serious about it. 

Let me propose a truce.  You say what you like and I'll say what I like and as long as neither of us is calling for violence or a violation of the other's pursuit of life, liberty and property, we let it go. We'll call it the First Amendment.