In America it is easy to forget that religion is often inconvenient to the smooth machinations of a political regime.  The brave woman at this morning's White House ceremony is as inconvenient to the Chinese Communists today as was the fellow standing in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

This caption accompanies the AP photo:

An unidentified protester, center, has her banner pulled away as she disrupted the speech of Chinese President Hu Jintao, not pictured, during an arrival ceremony with President Bush on the South Lawn of the White House Thursday, April 20, 2006 in Washington.  The woman interrupted the welcoming ceremony, shouting in English, 'President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong!'  She also shouted in Chinese, 'President Bush: Stop him from killing.' She was forcibly removed from the South Lawn by uniformed Secret Service personnel.

Falun Gong is not alone. The Chinese government discourages, murderously, all religions.  The 'Gong,' of Falun Gong , '...is developed through the transformation of the substance called virtue (de).'  

Mr. Hu and the communists will allow no other sources of virtue than themselves.

There is an ethereal and bittersweet song from the soundtrack of the 1998 film The Irish in America , titled 'An Raibh Tu Ag an gCarraig?'  The Gaelic translates to, 'Were You At The Rock?'  Here are the liner notes from the film's companion CD, Long Journey Home:

It recounts a time in Irish history when the celebration of the Mass was forbidden.  The mass rock referred to in the song was sometimes no more than a large stone that took the place of the altar.  More often than not the setting was in some remote part of the country side.  The location was not chosen for its wild beauty but rather so that approaching soldiers could be sighted far enough away for the worshippers to disappear into the country side.

It must be very inconvenient to the intolerants of the hard American left that virtuous, religious democrats can be more revolutionary than the revolutionaries.

Stephen Shields   4/20/2006