Government and Religion
My designated title for this posting
notwithstanding, what I am going to discuss today is freedom of religion. A lengthy
email was sent to me, allegedly forwarded from Ben Stein, regarding religion in
America. I’m not going to copy it because of its length; but, essentially it
says, “I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an
explicitly atheist country….” etc. Frankly, the way emails are being constantly
abused, I don’t know whether he said it or not, but I hear this kind of
statement not infrequently from other sources—thus the reason for this posting.
I think his comment should be addressed.
If
I’m wrong, I want someone to tell me, but it is my understanding that our
nation is a secular nation with a Constitution that guarantees freedom of
religion for all, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to bear
arms, and all the other subjects covered by our bill of rights. In his book, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers,
David L Holmes provides us with an excellent documentary of religion in our
country from our very beginning. As I understood his writing, the preponderance
of the original settlers consisted of Deists, Protestants (this would include Puritans
and Unitarians), and unbelievers. For the most part, Catholics and Jews came
later with Muslims and others much further up the line in our history. By the
time the bill of rights was written, it provided freedom of religion for all—for
everybody. In my mind, this means the freedom to not believe as well as the
freedom to believe, and that implies or infers we are a secular nation.
Now,
let us get to Dr. Stein’s concern which is the degradation of values in today’s
society; and I must say that I agree with him. I’m not going to attempt to
write a thesis in theology here because I am not qualified; but I will say
this. One’s religion, one’s beliefs, i.e. your religion, your beliefs are only
as real and valid as your personal relationship with your God. One’s faith
doesn’t begin with government. It begins with the person—within himself; and,
if his faith is real, anyone within eyesight can see it in how he lives. What
is more, God gives everybody the right to live as he wishes, believe what he
wants to believe, and accept or reject His Lordship as he so chooses. It’s
called freewill. He doesn’t force himself on anyone; and, in my mind, this
implies that He doesn’t expect His followers to force Him on others either.
Rather they are to spread the Word, to plant seed, to set an example—not to
force anyone.
I
have told you before, I am a Christian. It gets awfully hard sometimes when I
take one step forward and two steps backward, but I do my best. And I continue
to do that because I believe. But my point in all this has to do with Dr. Stein’s
(a Jew, by the way) concern for the degradation of values in our society. The
fact is that the degradation of our values began in our homes—in our living of
our lives. Children aren’t born with faith. It must be taught to them in the
home. It is an absolute fact that the human being learns more from what he sees
than what he is told. What one sees has more credibility than hearing. Your
have heard many times, I am sure, that “seeing is believing”. One’s “actions
speak louder than words”. We go to school to become educated, but it is in our
homes, in our churches, in our synagogues, in our mosques, etc, as well as,
just as importantly, from our associations with others that we learn values. We
are experiencing degradation in our values because of the degradation of the
family. As that institution fades into the past, so also will our values—the
direct result of worshiping mammon instead of God, the Corporatocracy and Power Elite.
Ronald Miller
Email me at mtss86@comcast.net
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