Removing Religion From The Public Square

Watching reruns of “Chicago Fire.” Came to the episode where the crew is involved in a terrorist bombing. Female paramedic Shay is seriously wounded and collapses from blood loss. Female police officer Kim breaks down because her young niece may be dying. Firefighter Peter Mills, aided by Joe Cruz and Chief Bowden, defuses a bomb with minimal training.

The episode is well written and well acted. But it is notable for what it does NOT depict: No one, not the wounded, not those in fear of death for themselves or others, and no one defusing a bomb – no one at all – prays even briefly, crosses themselves, or shows any sign that religion is even a minimal part of their lives.

Religion is a significant part of millions of lives, But a space alien watching TV or the internet would have no idea this was the case. If you remove a woman’s uterus, it is a hysterectomy. If you remove a people’s history, it is a historectomy. If you remove all evidence of their faith, there is no good term for it. But we need one, because that is what the mainstream media are trying to do.

Interesting footnote: Googled image of man crossing himself. Got hundreds of images of men with their arms crossed, but almost none of a man crossing himself. What does this tell us about the people who wrote the Google algorithm?