CBS Sunday Morning: Weird Juxtapositions

CBS Sunday Morning, in general, continues to be the epitome of excellence in television. This particular Sunday morning, April 27th, they aired an excellent piece on Jeremy Hall. Jeremy Hall is a soldier in the U.S. Army who in his second tour in Iraq faced persecution from fellow soldiers and superiors for his lack of superstitious beliefs. This persecution necessitating a personal body-guard and, eventually, a trip stateside. The reporting on this subject was up to Sunday Morning’s high standards.

Following the commercial break, the next piece was a commentary by Ben Stein. Yes, Ben Stein, mouthpiece of the creation science supporting documentary Expelled. Mr. Stein was commenting on the situation with the polygamist cult in Texas. He likened the state assault on an institution that was illegal and immoral to the Nazi’s. I find it particularly heinous that Mr. Stein associates anyone with whom he disagrees with Hitler’s Nazi party. As he did with evolution proponents in Expelled. Further, Mr. Stein appears to feel that the state of Texas should continue to turn a blind eye to the persecution of women and children as they have for decades.

In both cases it points out the responsibility of the state, actually the responsibility of all of us, to provide for the safety and well being of the minority. In the case of Jeremy Hall and others like him, the military as an instrument of the people of the United States has a responsibility to represent the people of the United States. All of them. Even the 16% who don’t believe in a supernatural deity. The state of Texas, after many years of turning a blind eye, finally took its responsibility seriously for the children of FLDS church. By bringing those children out of that corrupt society, where adult men can take young girls as their brides and women have little or no rights, they have fulfilled the promise of our secular society.