October 2, 2010.
In yesterday’s issue of The Shreveport Times there are two columns saying that it is religion that created America and our problems are that there are people and organizations trying to take away religion, which is the basis of our success. Both columns are nonsense.
How many times do people, who seem to need to support their religious beliefs, try to find quotes from the founders or their Bible to “prove” what is not true.
This nation was founded by Christians but not based on religion. For every quote someone can give us on the religious beliefs of the founders, common sense can tell you two things — first that there as many quotes that prove they were not pushing religion as the basis of the constitution, etc, and why would someone think the politicians then were more better, honest, etc. than politicians today? They said then, as now, what they thought the voters wanted to hear. And, like parents, they told kids to be good or Santa Claus wouldn’t come. (Actually in some parts, they passes laws against Christmas observance as being pagan oriented, but that is another story.) Religion, they were saying, is good for the masses, but they knew what it took to make a nation that would last, and the very first thing was to be sure that what they left in the old country, religious conflict and domination, did not happen here.
But it might be interesting to think about what Jesus would think, say and do if he were here today. For instance, would he join the Tea Party? He sure fought the establishment. He was attacking the religious leaders of his day, even using violence against the money changers in the temple. So he would probably not be happy with the bureaucrats in any political party or the leaders of religious churches. He would not be trying to save the world; he did not fight Rome or slavery only the “church.” He offered salvation to individuals, hoping that they would in turn be better citizens and thus would make a better nation. So there is no basis for saying Christians should force their beliefs on others.
But that means that Muslims can not force Islamic laws on us either. That is why separation of church and state is the greatest gift the founders gave us.
