Category Archives: Faith or Christianity

Anything I find worthy of sharing with the world in regards to Faith or Christianity. Yes, I know. It’s uncool and politically incorrect. Didn’t I already say that I’m not PC in my intro?

Religous Freedom?

I’ve been participating in a political forum of sorts at http://whitehouse2.org. One of the issues under consideration is “Restore Separation of Church & State.” There’s been a discussion going on over a talking point that I added to the issue: “Restore” implies that something has been removed.

In the interest of not wasting work/time, I wanted to post some of that discussion here.

So, here is the point as I posted it:

The Third Article of the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” (The rest has nothing to do with religion – don’t be lazy, go look it up.) This simply hinders state-endorsed religion, and keeps the state from prohibiting citizens from worshiping (or not) as they choose (as long as it’s lawful).

But in the name of “Separation of Church & State,” many ARE being prohibited in the free exercise thereof by Atheists and the PC crowd.

So, what’s been removed and needs restoring? The freedom to exercise thereof.
In a way you’re right… Separate Church & State by eliminating laws that prohibit freedom of religious exercises and/or impose other religious expressions/exercises onto another’s expression/exercise.

In response to one fellow who seems to be using this point to work on his Masters Thesis:

Christianity acknowledges that there is only one God. There is no separation between man & God because Jesus died on the cross to restore man’s relationship with Him. This removed the final barrier in that relationship – which was sin, not another person, entity, or political structure. Christians don’t make the mistake of believing they, themselves, are deity (hinduism).

Atheism denies the existence of deity, and believes that life is a chemical & biological accident.

Humanism is a social movement that attempts to qualify all religions & non-religions as equally valid in the interest of avoiding conflict. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is that, in that effort, Humanist themselves are actively attempting to eliminate Christianity from our society under the guise of Political Correctness. What they don’t understand is that the violation of the rights of any group is just as unconstitutional and WRONG – humanly – as are the violations of the rights of another. (Anyone see “The Pianist?” It begins with seemingly innocuous little policies, then, tiny step by tiny step lead to human rights violations, which lead to the gas chambers. It started with Jews & grew…)

England was trampling on the religious freedoms of its people, so they left & established a new country where they would be free to be Protestant or Catholic as they chose. In the interest of protecting that right, it is protected for all people of all religions or lack thereof.

Same thing was happening all over Europe, and continues to happen throughout the world. Those who desired that freedom came to the US. From Poland, Germany, Russia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq. (Yes, I know religious freedom isn’t the only driving force.)

The point is, the Constitution & Bill of Rights were written to protect this freedom for ALL not just the few. And if the US doesn’t get their collective heads out of the Humanist @$$, neither of these documents will have a legal leg to stand on and, one-by-one, all religion will be banned from public display of all types: ALL practices will be reserved for the privacy of the home, no churches, no synagogues, nor mosques, no foot-washing sinks in public buildings, Muslims will have to go home 5 times a day, you better not even bow your head before eating in a restaurant, don’t say “bless you” if someone sneezes…

So, prometheuspan, you can work on your Master’s Thesis here if it’s your goal to promote yourself. But your attitude is an example of the problem.

Christmas and Atheism

(Originally posted on this blog December 18, 2008, lost & recovered on January 9, 2009.)

For the past – what? three? five? – years, the Christmas season has been accompanied by protests over its very existence. Atheist are offended by the very celebration of “Christmas.”

They’ve tried to change the name of the celebration.

They’ve tried to remove all symbols of the celebration.

What they’re actually trying to do is remove CHRISTIANITY from the face of the Earth! Well, I don’t have time to go into that here and now. Let’s suffice it to say, “Go ahead and make a bigger fool of yourself.”

I just want to add my 2¢ to the current topic…

Why are Atheists attacking Christmas? Because they don’t believe in God, much less his son, Jesus.

And they are perfectly within their rights to believe or not believe as they choose. After all, this country was started by people seeking refuge from persecution – especially religious.

Remember, in the Motherland they were actually killing people for not believing, or at least practicing, the state-endorsed religion. In some countries Protestants were being executed (sometimes officially, sometimes not), in other countries it was Catholics, in others Jews. That’s why the Third Article of the Bill of Rights states:

“Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the rights of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.”

Do I REALLY have to explain in modern terms what this means about the freedom to worship, or not worship, as the individual, or group, wishes?

What Athiests seem to forget is that their rights end where they infringe on the rights of others.

Christmas is a Christian holiday. It is also commonly celebrated by non-Christians because it’s FUN! You like fun, don’t you?

Yes, our modern-day celebrations have borrowed some elements from other religions and festivals. That doesn’t mean that us Christians don’t keep in mind the Reason for the Season, nor the Christian symbolism of those borrowed secular elements.

Nobody’s telling Jews not to celebrate Hanukkah.

Nobody’s telling Africans not to celebrate Kwanzaa.

Nobody’s telling Muslims not to celebrate Ramadan. (Before anyone comments, yes, I know it’s not necessarily celebrated in December!)

Yet it’s perfectly alright to tell Christians that we can’t celebrate Christmas. It’s perfectly alright to trample all over the individual and collective rights of Christians that are supposedly protected by the Third Article of the Bill of Rights, just as everyone else’s is.

So… If YOU don’t want to celebrate Christmas, don’t. Nobody’s forcing you to.

You can celebrate the “Winter Festival” if that’s what you want it to be. And you can celebrate it in any way you like. Well… as long as your celebration is a peaceable and lawful one. No human sacrifices or public orgies – both of which would violate all sorts of city, state, and federal laws! ;)   Hey… go jump in an icy lake if that’s what you feel like!

But stop trying to infringe on the rights of Christians by telling us we can’t celebrate Christmas! If someone tells you “Merry Christmas,” take it for the good wishes that are intended and get your panties out of a wad. Don’t you think Christmas is stressful enough without you adding to it by taking offense with well wishes?