IN MEMORIAM: GEORGE CARLIN

George Carlin was too young to die by our current actuarial standards. While Tim Russert was eulogized for days and days, I will miss George Carlin most. Tim Russert left a hole in the media water and it will be immediately filled. Carlin leaves so much original material, it will take much longer for him to be replaced on the humor and humane circuit.

George Carlin was a thinker 'outside the box'. He shocked some people and was very clear that the profanity was his spice in his 'stew'. Always frank and addressing truth as he saw it, he gave opinion on religion and many other topics. He could see things as no one else seemed to define them. His monologue on Stuff was hysterically funny and hit so truthfully.

The applause he got should never be forgotten. His Pro-life in Anti-woman monologue is what many people believe but few can say so well. He could add much to any discussion, far more than most of the journalists on TV. For that reason, even Keith Olbermann had him on Countdown and it was a far more interesting show than some of the self-appointed 'pundits' he occasionally has speaking.

I, for one of many, will feel the loss of this man's brilliant mind and his ability to make us hear messages when he wrapped them in humor. Thank you for leaving us your recorded wit. You will never be forgotten.

ANOTHER REASON FOR SEPARATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE

In the US, driver's licenses serve as identification. As I recall from a couple of years ago, a Muslim woman in Florida refused to take off her veil for her picture. The court decided that law supersedes religious practice, at least in so basic an American law. The Archbishop of Canterbury believes adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion. Dr Williams said an approach to law, which simply said, "there's one law for everybody and that's all there is to be said, and anything else that commands your loyalty or allegiance is completely irrelevant in the processes of the courts - I think that's a bit of a danger". "There's a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law, as we already do with some other aspects of religious law." I do not know where else law gives in to religion though some customs may.

Stephen Prothero, chairman of the religion department at Boston University, isn't laughing. Americans' deep ignorance of world religions — their own, their neighbors' or the combatants in Iraq, Darfur or Kashmir — is dangerous, he says.

His new book, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn't, argues "that everyone needs to grasp Bible basics, as well as the core beliefs, stories, symbols and heroes of other faiths."

Belief is not his business, says Prothero, who grew up Episcopalian and now says he's a spiritually "confused Christian." He says his argument is for empowered citizenship.

"More and more of our national and international questions are religiously inflected," he says, citing President Bush's speeches laden with biblical references and the furor when the first Muslim member of Congress chose to be sworn in with his right hand on Thomas Jefferson's Quran. Judging from the current crop of politicians, would it matter which book they got sworn in on? If one does not fear the wrath of God, what hypocrisy does the ''swearing in' represent? Have we not witnessed enough religious people violate laws from within the churches they represent?

It would appear that there are 22 significant religions recognized. Can you imagine how hectic it would be if there were 22 separate sets of laws here in the United States and as many people breaking the new ones as all break the ones we have today? For example, people go to jail here for pushing marijuana. "Religions always reflect the social and geographical environment out of which they emerge, and Jamaican Rastafarianism is no exception: for example, the use of marijuana as a sacrament and aid to meditation is logical in a country where a particular strain of 'herb' grows freely. Emerging out of the island of Jamaica in the latter half of the century, the religious/political movement known as Rastafarianism has gained widespread exposure in the Western world."

It may work in the UK to start making all kinds of exceptions to laws, but I think it would be far too complicated here in the States. Does it mean that we should allow female genital mutilation in the US because a religion tells us to do so? I would worry if we, as a country, tried to push that one through. In fact, I worry enough about how the country is being run right now!