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President Ronald Reagan
"My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty of thee I sing." "America" by S.F. Smith, 1831
A culture and its people must have unifying beliefs and attending rituals to survive. That has been true throughout human history. Central agreed upon beliefs make culture and society possible. Supporting rituals are the reminders, the reinforcing glue holding us together.
Can we say we generally agree on the central beliefs that have made America great? Can we say we participate in rituals that preserve and perpetuate those beliefs?
One central belief we shared in common from the very beginning until the 1960s was this: In God We Trust. No matter where you came from and no matter what religion you practiced, becoming an American always meant you joined us in the general belief that God is the source of love and law and goodness and human rights. It never mattered that you were Muslim or Hindu or Mormon or Christian or Buddhist or whatever. There was even room for atheists so long as we held to the idea that a supreme power beyond government was the guarantor of rights. Part of being an American invited you to join us in the belief that God protects us and provides for us and is the Giver of Rights. He therefore stands in the way of tyranny and preserves the Republic.
It has always been an invitation to voluntarily embrace the idea. If it ever becomes a forced issue, it will become un-American, for love is the fuel, and love is always a matter of voluntary free will.
Tragically, we no longer share that central belief, and so, we are seeing deterioration. As Reagan said: "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
Our sweet liberty hangs in the balance. Some would cast our religious heritage aside, mocking it as irrelevant, outdated, irrational, even unconstitutional, not realizing that that heritage and its rituals and traditions are the stuff of liberty, the unifying force that made America the kindest and greatest nation on earth.
One example among many: Sumatra, Indonesia---the most radical region in the largest Muslim country in the world. The people there had been taught for decades that Westerners, particularly American Christians, only wanted to murder Muslims. The people actually believed we only wanted to ambush and kill them. When the 2006 tsunami hit it killed 200,000 people in Banda Aceh. Thousands more were injured and left homeless. The government did not help. Foreign aid from Muslim nations was not forthcoming. Westerners and Christians were the only ones to respond with food, water, shelter, clothing and medical care. Unarmed Marines landed with food and water and medical supplies.
Needless to say, the people of Sumatra had a huge change of heart, a change that comes only by the love of God working through people.
Love is not a human-generated thing: it is a God thing. When we cut off God, we cut off love. It's just that simple.
The Great Amen is central to freedom.
"From every mountainside, let freedom ring."
PS:
The fourth verse is especially noteworthy.
"Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King."
Comments
Not bad writing, but that picture of Reagan is like an attractive woman with a wart on the end of her nose.
x
Mr. Fact Check here.
"In God we trust" was started during the Civil War.
Buddhist do not believe in God. Buddha is not a god.
And I believe that the Constitution is the common bond most Americans share. It is that document that guarantees that our country will never become a theocracy. It guarantees no religious tests. It guarantees a wall between church and state. Can we agree on that, perhaps?
We'll be fine as a country if we can keep our personal beliefs personal and not somehow try to rationalize that a belief in god is a requirement to be an American. It is not, never was, never will be.
xexon,
I leave you to your deepening irrelevance.
Obot,
I leave you to your blissful ignorance.
And I leave you to yours.
Until next time....
Dave
For those who are interested in learning:
Two recent books edited by Daniel Dreisbach, Jeffry Morrison, and Mark David Hall—"The Founders on God and Government" and "The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life"—carefully explained the religious backgrounds, convictions, and contributions of numerous founders. They show that many who played leading roles in the nation’s Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress, and the devising and ratification of the Constitution were devout Christians, as evident in their church attendance, commitment to prayer and Bible reading, belief in God’s direction of earthly affairs, and conduct.
orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2010/02/26/the-faith-of-the-founders-how-christian-were-they/
"Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith."
"The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other."
A. de Tocq
Alexis de Tocqueville quotes
You don't need religion to be moral.
As a non religious person, I'll stand toe to toe with your Christian "saints" all day long.
Religion has become a political force rather than a spiritual path.
You will be rewarded accordingly.
x
United States Constitution
The First Amendment
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
Article VI, Section 3
"...no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
John Adams (the second President of the United States)
Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli (June 7, 1797). Article 11 states:
"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
From a letter to Charles Cushing (October 19, 1756):
"Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, 'this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.'"
From a letter to Thomas Jefferson:
"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!"
Additional quotes from John Adams:
"Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?"
"The Doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdi
Thomas Jefferson (the third President of the United States)
Jefferson's interpretation of the first amendment in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association (January 1, 1802):
"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
From Jefferson's biography:
"...an amendment was proposed by inserting the words, 'Jesus Christ...the holy author of our religion,' which was rejected 'By a great majority...
Jefferson's "The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom":
"Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry....The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
From Thomas Jefferson's Bible:
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
James Madison (the fourth President of the United States)
Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments:
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise....During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."
Additional quote from James Madison:
"Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
Allan,
Your superstition was not endorsed by the founding fathers, I encourage you to be honest with yourself and your reader.
whoops,
As usual, your 'scholarship' is thin and filled with holes. It is therefore useless.
"Two recent books edited by Daniel Dreisbach, Jeffry Morrison, and Mark David Hall—"The Founders on God and Government" and "The Forgotten Founders on Religion and Public Life"—carefully explained the religious backgrounds, convictions, and contributions of numerous founders. They show that many who played leading roles in the nation’s Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress, and the devising and ratification of the Constitution were devout Christians, as evident in their church attendance, commitment to prayer and Bible reading, belief in God’s direction of earthly affairs, and conduct."
orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2010/02/26/the-faith-of-the-founders-how-christian-were-they/
xexon,
You don't understand the first thing about Christianity, apparently, since you don't seem to understand that Christians are really no different than anyone else. The only differentiator is we have accepted the gift offered, and you have refused it. That is why makes all the difference. It is not about performance. Rather, it is about surrender, acceptance and obedience. The sons of disobedience import sin and death and remain under God's wrath. Your choice of course, but not very smart. You wind up standing toe-to-toe with yourself, for eternity, separated from the source of love and light, and that will be your reward.
Your world is based upon belief. Mine, direct perception. Your path teaches faith. Mine, the ability to see spiritually so faith is not required.
I've already been down your road. You have yet to travel mine.
Your god does not exist. Not in all your years of devotion have you ever glimpsed either God or Jesus. The only thing that keeps you going is reinforcement from other's who have the same beliefs.
I am a self sustaining flame. And given the chance, I would burn all the belief away from you so you can see where you're going rather than where you're being lead...
But you're not ready. That's why they say many are called but few are chosen. Desire is not enough. It also requires ability that only those with a certain level of spiritual maturity can manifest.
You like democracy. You should take comfort in the fact you're in the majority on this.
x
de Toqueville could have never predicted the danger that Dominionists are to our Freedoms. I'll stand with Xexon agaist a religious hypocrite any day (and twice on Sunday).
Arrogance should be the eighth Deadly Sin
xexon and obot know all about the 8th deadly sin...
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