I'd like to start a little discussion on this sensitive issue, because I have been hearing more and more of it lately. Please try not to become offended in any of this, and respect the fact that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. The following is my essay on the subject. I would just like to know some other people's stand on why there should be no seperation between religion and our local, state, and federal governing bodies. To make sure nobody gets the wrong idea, I'm all for student-led prayer at football games and activities of this nature.
Preservation Through Separation
One thing that I'm confident that nobody will ever agree on is religion. The beliefs of one are not only based on the environment a person is born into, how the person is raised, and many other diversified circumstances but also in the mind and the "conscience". Even those religions based on the same philosophical and supernatural ideas tend to diversify in beliefs, leading to various denominations and splitting amongst the churches.
Furthermore, it becomes even more difficult for any one nation, especially as one as diversified as the United States, to endorse any one type of religious practice unless the the population in its entirety believes in the same practices.
The Christian world as we know it was outraged at the Supreme Court decision that halted the process of school-organized prayer at the start of each day. After reading through the case, provided concietedly online by an atheist organization, the plaintiff was an atheist mother who was angered that the religious rights of her son were being violated in school. Since her son didn't want to participate in the act of prayer in the classroom, he was given the alternative to wait outside while the rest of the class did. The documents say that through the legal ordeal, the plaintiff and her family were abused physically and psychologically by their community.
Although our forefathers were avid Christians and made sure that God as our foundation would be preserved, they also recognized that repressing people's religious beliefs would hardly be better than the lives they lived in England. The Pilgrims might just as well pack up and ship off again.
The dominant part of using our freedoms is also learning to accept that those same freedoms are available to all of our citizens no matter what their ideas may be, within reason. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley had this to say: "Public schools can neither foster religion nor preclude it. Our public schools must treat religion with fairness and respect and vigorously protect religious expression as well as the freedom of conscience and all other students. In so doing our public schools reaffirm the First Amendment and enrich the lives of their students." (June 1998) Rather than taking the attitude that the government has removed our beliefs from school, we must accept that the government is preserving the rights of other people. Yes, even atheists. This is merely a way of helping youth accept people who are different, which is a problem youth have.
All of this goes back to the Golden Rule. I am reminded of the instance of Shadrach, Meshach and Adednego. When their religious beliefs were threatened, they chose to face death rather than give in. How is this any different than the Atheist stand in the 1960's? If our public schools were teaching that a God didn't exist and that the Bible was an unreliable, fictitious novel, it would be a matter of no time until a Christian was assembling a case. "If Christians were a minority faith, I am sure that they would want the opportunity to practice their faith without interference from the government and without the government telling them that their religion is less desirable and not condoned," said Scott Hamilton on an internet forum, "The Seperation of Church and State is doing unto others as you would have them do to you."
What we have to realize, and also get past, is that Christianity is being put to the test. We have become comfortable under the shield of our nation's freedoms and traditions while new Chistians around the world willingly choose death than to give up on the only hope they have. It is not the job of our government to endorse, protect, and execute Christianity on this nation unless it's violently being repressed. If this is how the church is going to react now, I fear of what will happen when we find ourselves being rejected across the globe in the points leading into the Tribulation.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin once said "There is no source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed." If people are being oppressed, then eventually a group would rise enough to overcome the oppression as often the Israelites did in the Old Testament and our forefathers in the Revolution.
Forcing Christianity on people will harden their hearts and contradict the kindness and understanding we as Christians are supposed to possess. I am a Christian, but I also hold high the laws and principles of our nation. Disregarding what our forefathers felt were rights all people deserve, shows that we do not respect the sacrifices they had to make in order to give us those rights.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is" Romans 12:2
[This message has been edited by Pendragon (edited 03 January 2002).]
[This message has been edited by Pendragon (edited 04 January 2002).]
Preservation Through Separation
One thing that I'm confident that nobody will ever agree on is religion. The beliefs of one are not only based on the environment a person is born into, how the person is raised, and many other diversified circumstances but also in the mind and the "conscience". Even those religions based on the same philosophical and supernatural ideas tend to diversify in beliefs, leading to various denominations and splitting amongst the churches.
Furthermore, it becomes even more difficult for any one nation, especially as one as diversified as the United States, to endorse any one type of religious practice unless the the population in its entirety believes in the same practices.
The Christian world as we know it was outraged at the Supreme Court decision that halted the process of school-organized prayer at the start of each day. After reading through the case, provided concietedly online by an atheist organization, the plaintiff was an atheist mother who was angered that the religious rights of her son were being violated in school. Since her son didn't want to participate in the act of prayer in the classroom, he was given the alternative to wait outside while the rest of the class did. The documents say that through the legal ordeal, the plaintiff and her family were abused physically and psychologically by their community.
Although our forefathers were avid Christians and made sure that God as our foundation would be preserved, they also recognized that repressing people's religious beliefs would hardly be better than the lives they lived in England. The Pilgrims might just as well pack up and ship off again.
The dominant part of using our freedoms is also learning to accept that those same freedoms are available to all of our citizens no matter what their ideas may be, within reason. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley had this to say: "Public schools can neither foster religion nor preclude it. Our public schools must treat religion with fairness and respect and vigorously protect religious expression as well as the freedom of conscience and all other students. In so doing our public schools reaffirm the First Amendment and enrich the lives of their students." (June 1998) Rather than taking the attitude that the government has removed our beliefs from school, we must accept that the government is preserving the rights of other people. Yes, even atheists. This is merely a way of helping youth accept people who are different, which is a problem youth have.
All of this goes back to the Golden Rule. I am reminded of the instance of Shadrach, Meshach and Adednego. When their religious beliefs were threatened, they chose to face death rather than give in. How is this any different than the Atheist stand in the 1960's? If our public schools were teaching that a God didn't exist and that the Bible was an unreliable, fictitious novel, it would be a matter of no time until a Christian was assembling a case. "If Christians were a minority faith, I am sure that they would want the opportunity to practice their faith without interference from the government and without the government telling them that their religion is less desirable and not condoned," said Scott Hamilton on an internet forum, "The Seperation of Church and State is doing unto others as you would have them do to you."
What we have to realize, and also get past, is that Christianity is being put to the test. We have become comfortable under the shield of our nation's freedoms and traditions while new Chistians around the world willingly choose death than to give up on the only hope they have. It is not the job of our government to endorse, protect, and execute Christianity on this nation unless it's violently being repressed. If this is how the church is going to react now, I fear of what will happen when we find ourselves being rejected across the globe in the points leading into the Tribulation.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin once said "There is no source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed." If people are being oppressed, then eventually a group would rise enough to overcome the oppression as often the Israelites did in the Old Testament and our forefathers in the Revolution.
Forcing Christianity on people will harden their hearts and contradict the kindness and understanding we as Christians are supposed to possess. I am a Christian, but I also hold high the laws and principles of our nation. Disregarding what our forefathers felt were rights all people deserve, shows that we do not respect the sacrifices they had to make in order to give us those rights.
------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is" Romans 12:2
[This message has been edited by Pendragon (edited 03 January 2002).]
[This message has been edited by Pendragon (edited 04 January 2002).]
