The Separation of Church and Transportation

Hang onto your boarding passes and Bibles. After 30 years of distributing prayer cards to passengers with their meals Alaska Airlines has discontinued the practice. The reason is that some people “didn’t feel religion was appropriate on the plane and preferred not to receive one.”

As a marketing ploy (who says sex is the only thing that sells) Alaska Airlines placed scriptures printed on colorful photos of wispy clouds, mist ladened mountain tops and gently flowing streams on the meal trays of their passengers. The verses included such text as “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever.” Some people found this offensive. Holy Toledo! We are not talking PETA commercials here.

When airline food hardly passes for more than POW rations, these cards offered more nourishment than the tissue-thin slice of cheese with a piece of limp lettuce slapped between a jaw-tiring roll and served with three ounces of warmed Coke poured over half-melted ice cubes. Since when would you not appreciate wise and kind messages?

Yet, "after carefully considering all sides, it was agreed that eliminating the cards was the right thing to do," said Bobbie Egan, an airline spokeswoman. Implied is that placing these cards on the meal trays was the wrong, obtrusive, insulting, evangelistic thing to do. If you were insulted, made uncomfortable and preferred not to have religion mixed your transportation I must conject about your state of being. After all, it wasn’t like the flight attendants were reciting prayers and scriptures over the PA system as they pushed the beverage cart down the aisle. Nor were they setting down prayer rugs or burning incense. The prayer card was placed on the tray, for the perusal and use of the diner, similar to the evacuation card slipped in the seatback pocket for the need of those who wish to be informed in case of an emergency. Most don’t read the card preferring to deny the possibility that these vehicles do fall out of the sky. And few experienced the Miracle on the Hudson, where I can assure you a lot of praying was going on.

If you were one bothered by the prayer card you must so loathe religion that you wish to destroy it for all. Non-believers think prayer should be a private thing, unlike sexual preferences. The non-believer prefers to deny the believer of the hope, calm and peace that religion can offer. The atheist who is uncomfortable when confronted with "public" displays of faith and belief even in the most benign and subtle forms prefers to deny the believer his faith.

Why so uncomfortable? They are so bothered by something they don’t believe. If the non-believer doesn’t believe in God, why does anything to do with God bother him? God doesn’t exist. Move along with life. They can’t confront with their own atheism. I don’t believe in leprechauns, but the idea that a little bearded man dressed in a green suit sitting at the end of a rainbow with a pot of gold doesn’t scare me, offend me or consume me in such a way that I am propelled to eradicate leprechauns from the face of the earth.

Non-believers argue that they have a right not to have religious values imposed upon them. Then whose values should be imposed? Theirs? With values like “live and let live” guiding their behavior I say, "exactly", even if I prefer to have my principals and values come from a higher, more divine source. Why do those who don’t believe in God or religion oppose it with such venom? Surely, not for our benefit.

I recognize divine Providence every time I get on a plane, even as I practice two boarding superstitions. The first is, I must have something to do the next day. God won’t let me off this earth until I finish His business. The second is that I touch the outside of the plane. When I have done this the plane has never crashed. But after I take my seat, I pray. I pray for the mechanics, the pilots, the flight attendants and all the people involved in getting the plane from point A to point B without incident. I pray for the passengers. I pray for those who sent off the passengers and those who will receive them at the other end. It is pretty broad sweeping, but nothing beyond the ability of God. And if my plane goes down, I’m going to God. My belief extends to the non-believer even if he doesn’t believe.

If Alaska Airlines distributed cards that pictured war, starvation and crime and said there is no God, I would be offended. I might even decide that it was time to get off the plane. It is exactly what those who were offended by the prayer cards should have done. Taken their business elsewhere.

We are nose-diving as a society because the secular whims of the non-believer who screams separation of church and state forgetting our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values. While the founders differed in their religious beliefs and practices they recognized the important role divine Providence played in this country’s creation. Now the offended non-believer is yelling separation of church and transportation and getting away with it.

I am deeply disappointed in Alaska Airlines' choice to “do the right” thing.

Since writing this I have learned that yesterday Dubai-based airline Emirates and Alaska Airlines have launched a new frequent flier partnership that will offer travelers the opportunity to accrue Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles when they fly to any of Emirates' 118 destinations worldwide, including points across Africa, India and the Middle East. Maybe this was the reason to eliminate prayer cards?