Practically every paper I picked up on this 4th of July holiday week had a full page ad with a bunch of writing but a big headline in the middle: In God We Trust.
It was hard to really know who wrote all this and who paid
for this ad but it seems a few stores like Hobby Lobby, Hemispheres and Mardel
Stores in Oklahoma City
paid for the ad and NEED HIM MINISTRY was behind the message.
The message was a bunch of quotes from historical American
figures from presidents to congressmen, educators, Founding Fathers and Supreme
Court justices all declaring America
as a Christian nation…
The 4th of July timing is good but the message is
very flawed; we are not a Christian nation and we were never a Christian nation
and in fact, it would be unconstitutional for us to be a Christian nation
because our Founding Fathers made sure we as a nation, never declare any
religion as our national religion as per our FIRST AMENDMENT.
This principle established by our Founding Fathers in our
Constitution has served us very well throughout our history. Our Founding
Fathers knew the terrible role played by religions in various countries where
the ruler or government declared for a specific religion.
Hell, this country was colonized by religious people
escaping persecution for their religious beliefs and practices from their home
countries so they did not want to go to a country that would again persecute
religious people that did not fit into the declared national religion SO WE
HAVE PROHIBITED OUR GOVERNMENT FROM EVER FORMING A NATIONAL RELIGION.
In fact, Congress when ratifying a treaty with the Barbary
Pirates specifically stated that the United States is absolutely NOT a
Christian nation…look it up.
So why would these obviously religious nuts try to mislead
people into thinking we are a Christian nation? ... because they want to build
a Christian nation. They want our government to break the law and declare their
allegiance to Christianity and persecute all other religions out of the
country.
In other words, they want us to defy our Founding Fathers
and our Constitution and create a Christian state.
They make a convincing argument by quoting all these
historic figures saying something about how Christian we all are. Well that is
true, at the founding of this country, many immigrants were Christian but they
were all different kinds of Christians escaping from other Christians that
persecuted them in their homeland.
So yes, we adopted certain Christian symbols into our
greater society but make no mistake about it, the First Amendment was added to
the Constitution to forbid our government from declaring FOR any religion even
though many members of the government at that time were some sort of Christian.
Actually, many Founding Fathers were DEISTS and believed in
a creator God but NOT in religion.
Don’t let religious fools fool you…know your facts…I will
remind you of them!
I understand people's view about the seemingly contradicting ideas presented in the Hobby Lobby ad and the First Amendment's establishment clause. At birth of our nation, the only blanket religion was Christianity, but it took many different forms. The writers of the Constitution were most likely thinking about the conflicts that could happen by showing preference to one of these demominations. The thought that non-Christian religions becoming a significant part of our nation's population probably did not cross the minds of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, etc. If it were possible to interview George Washington today, and ask him if it was our Founding Fathers' vision that God be minimized in the "public square," he would be shocked. That was not their intention.The First Amendment was intended to prevent one form of Christianity from gaining state approval to the detriment of other groups. Over the years, this has been expanded to other groups. However, the other groups did not take part in forming the ideals that made this nation. Yes, the Founders held varying degrees of belief in God. They knew the only way for our nation to survive was for the population to be God-fearing and believing. Christian values are found throughout our early documents such as the Declaration and Constitution. That is where the idea of our being a Christian nation comes from. Many of today's Christians fear that we are moving away from the values in which our nation was founded. One of those values is to be a praying nation. Others involve honesty, purity, faithfulness, etc. All of these may not be spelled out in the Declaration and Constitution, but one can deduce, for the application of documents, we must be a moral people. Morality must be based on an authority other than our own minds. God's authority, when interpreted correctly -- no perverted -- gives us a life of peace that passes all understanding.
ReplyDeleteYes, the establishment clause prevents our nation from giving preferential treatment to any religious group, but it does not state we should remove God from the public square. God is part of our foundation, and if a foundation is compromised, so is everything that sits on it.
Hobby Lobby reminds us of this. This is the belief of the owners of the company, and they chose to share what they believe, which is also part of the First Amendment. People are free to take it as they wish. I'm just saddened so many people are offended. We can disagree without being offended. Hobby Lobby paid for it, many people appreciated it, some were touched by it, some disagreed and went on with their lives, but others have spewed pure venom in response. That saddens me. Venom from the believers and non-believers does God no good. My prayers for all.