[UPDATED at 3:15 pm FOR CLARIFICATION] The "religious ritual footwashing" is not actually a religious ritual. It is the volunteers wiping off the feet with moist towelettes, if the children agree. There are no basins filled with holy water, no drying with hair, and no Bibles being thumped. Just because these people go to church does not make everything a religious ritual!

I mean, really. People showing compassion and actually imitating Christ? Ministering to forgotten children? Whew. Glad the Americans United for Church and State are on top of things. making sure these kids go shoeless.

I am pretty sure that some of these kids who would be receiving new shoes have never had anyone, let alone a complete stranger, treat them with this sort of dignity - personally washing their feet before bestowing new shoes to them.

South Carolina is a place apart - we've got the Confederate flag at football games, flip flops in church, and people complaining about washing children. And, ummm, hate to nitpick, but footwashing is not just a Christian activity. What happened to the hue and cry surrounding the decision to install foot baths for Muslims at airports? Foot washing is one of the eight offerings of Buddhism. Hindus wash feet during marriage and death ceremonies. People who wear flip flops, the state shoe of South Carolina, engage in regular foot washing (one hopes.) It's pretty universal - I bet even secular humanists wash their feet, and pay other people to do it for them at the pedicure salon.

Labels: children, In The News, Rants and Raves