The god of my fathers

Your children's teacher is not allowed to lead them in prayer and now some people want to take the words "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance. The ten commandments have been removed from the court house and pubic money can not be used in any way that might promote a particular religion. Some businesses are instructing their employees to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". "God" is being forced out of the schools, out of government and into the back rooms of faith oriented community gathering centers. What we used to call "churches". How can this be?

"Christian men and women - on Christian principles - founded this nation, and this is clearly documented". That's what the emails says and I believe it. Something has gone very wrong. Who can we hold accountable for this corruption of of our country's character. Lets round up the usual suspects...

Bleeding Heart Liberals: They're the ones that think health care should be free, want to make sure everyone is fed and don't respect national borders. Bunch of subversive nut-jobs. They used to crucify people like that.

ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union. This group tries protect the rights granted by the Constitution of the United States of America and they don't care who gets hurt in the process.

The Atheist led by Madalyn Murray O'Hair: According to the email I get Ms O'Hair managed to get Touched by an Angel cancelled and has recently filed a lawsuit which will force the removal of the word "god" from all television and radio broadcast. So vitriolic is her hatred of religion that she continues her self appointed crusade unabated dispite having died ten years ago.

Activist Judges: Federal Judges are not elected by the people. The people elect the president, who nominates judges, and the senate who confirms the nominations. So the decisions made by the courts in no way reflect the will of the people.

Christian Religious Leaders: Their lack of unity has weakened the influence of the church and allowed the flock to be led astray by the main stream media.

Lets look back at the founding fathers for a moment. It was these same men (and women) that enacted the first amendment. Look it up. Christian men and women many of who owned slaves. And at least one, Tomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence, fathered children with a slave. Having sex with a woman that you own is rape. Imagine that, the man who gave us "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." was a very serious abuser of human rights. Try not to think about this to much, your brain will over heat.

I admire the founding fathers and don't wish to spend words pointing out their moral failings. They were able to put aside vast philosophical and personal differences and work toward a common goal. They created a single government, bringing together people of many faiths, diverse backgrounds and various social and economic status treating them as equals. And did so in a way that has lasted for more than two hundred years. One government for all the people.

By contrast the history of the Christian Church, since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in the 1500s, has been one of division. Luther created the protestant church and Henry the 8th, wanting a divorce and to keep large sums of money in England away from the Pope, created the church of England. Nice two for one deal. Then came, in no particular order, the Puritans, the Methodist, the Fundamentalist and the Presbyterians. Today in the USA we have the Assembly of God Church, The Pentecostal Church of God, The United Pentecostal Church, The Church of The Nazarene, The Baptist Church and The Southern Baptist Church. There are Evangelical Free Churches, Gospel Churches, Charismatic Churches and Independent Bible Churches. That is just a fraction of the churches listed in our local phone book. We live in a rural area, the book is less than one inch thick.

Mary Baker Eddy formed the Church of Christ Scientist and Joseph Smith formed the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (the Mormons). When the leadership of the Mormon Church decided tax breaks were more important than alternative life styles and banned polygamy the Mormon Fundamentalist broke away.

Who keeps creating these schisms in the church? Well it is not the atheist, they form book clubs. It is not the Easter Sunday/Christmas Eve attendees, they watch football and support the PTA. It is not even the families that sit in the front row and quietly tithe 10%.

The new denominations are always started by the men (and women) who get up on the dais, pound their chest and loudly proclaim "My belief is stronger than your belief." And usually they claim to be taking orders directly from the big man himself. They devise different ceremonies, write different prayers, read different bibles and design different costumes. And they all preach about the one true "god".

But somehow Christians seem to think that if we allowed teacher lead prayer in public schools that all the different sects in the community, county or state would wondrously agree on the proper format for that prayer. And everyone would know the right thing to pray for. We can't agree on the proper way to teach math.

If all the different denominations of christian churches in this country were united there would be no question about "religion" in politics. Only members of that group would have a chance to get elected. And besides the church would have enough money to buy all the candidates wholesale before the election. They're much cheaper before the election. There is a "fire sale" after the election but only on the losers.

This great nation has one government for all the people. If we are to let religion into the government it needs to be a religion for "all the people". Even the democrats, with nine presidential candidates, present a more united front than the Christians.

OWL

July 30, 2007