Thou shalt hold no red, white, and blue idols before me
: I like this argument: Passing laws to forbid desecration of the flag is not only an unconstitutional infringement of free speech but also:
By elevating the flag to an object of transcendent veneration — an untouchable idol — the proposed amendment strikes at the core of Jewish, Muslim and Christian belief systems.
The Ten Commandments apply to Jews and Christians alike. Heading the list is the commandment to have no other god, meaning no other absolute allegiance. The Second Commandment extends that prohibition to veneration of material objects — it forbids “bowing down to” or worshipping graven images of any kind. The point of all this is that no temporal power is worthy of the veneration that must be reserved for God alone.
A virtually identical prohibition applies to Muslims. The First Pillar of their faith, repeated daily in prayers, is “There is no God but God and Muhammed is the messenger of God.” The greatest sin for a Muslim, comparable to idolatry for a Jew or Christian, is “shirk,” which means associating something with God. That includes associating a state or nation with God, or assigning transcendent importance to a symbol of that state or nation.
