After reading Chris Hedges' book, American Fascists, I decided that it is necessary for the community to be intolerant of intolerance.  One of the ways in which local churches engage in intolerance is to use public facilities for proselytizing.  I attended one such event last year and got literature which described the "spiritual history" of Western Civilization, an account which in no way reflected known historical evidence, but simply stated that, yes, the true Christian religion just happened to be that particular sect's.

Feeling that such humbuggery was not conducive to my town's need for religious grounding, I asked the school board to deny the use of their property for such future events for any church or cult.  They shot me down even before their next meeting.

So I proposed to them this:  Since religious tenets do possess value for the community, it is desirable to promote events which strengthen the community.  The community can be certain that a religious event is based on solid moral grounds when all the faiths represented in the area agree that the event is a worthy one.

I proposed that, for every application by a religious group, the school board send out a questionnaire to representatives of all faiths asking them to answer the following questions:  Does your church support this?  Will you recommend this to your congregation?  How many of your parishioners will serve as staff for the event?  How many of your congregation do you expect will attend the event?  

The school board has referred the matter "to committee," and I expect it will get shot down.  However, my next gambit is to appear before them again and say that school facilities should be rented only for ecumenical events, that is, events sponsored by all the churches.

That religion is of value to the community is unquestionable; however, it is only when the various churches and faiths agree on a course of action that we can be assured that they indeed are addressing a valid and universal religious principle.

I'll report on the "ecumenical" approach later.