If you have read the paper this past week you could not help but notice the Supreme Court took up the issue once again regarding the 10 Commandments. Suffice it to say the debate continues to rage on. A friend of mine just returned from Washington D.C. after his first visit to our nations Capitol. He was amazed at all the debate over the so called "separation of church and state" when it is clear to all who visit any of the original monuments that our country was not just founded on a religious belief system but on biblical Christianity and specifically, the 10 Commandments.
My friend said he saw a shirt with an American Flag on it and the caption that read "Freedom Of Religion... Not Freedom From religion. I loved it...It's been said many times that faith in God is what made America great and when America ceases to place her faith and trust in God then America will cease to be great. I agree. What are your thoughts?
posted by pastor mike at 8:11 PM
4 Comments:
I wonder if we are putting a little too much emphasis on this whole law thing though. I mean God has given us the freedom to choose whether or not to love Him. Ultimately I know "every knee will bow" but we wouldn't want to force God on anyone and my understanding is that God doesn't want to force hiimself on anyone either. So then why would we force the law on those that don't believe in it? And for me, when I was in high school... not very long ago... the "Christian t-shirt" kids always just came off to me as having this whole "holier than thou" attitude... it was the ones that showed me grace and love that won me to Christ... not the ones who shoved the law down my throat. Those "Christian t-shirt" kids were their own clique, so to speak, in and of themselves... they didn't reach out beyond their little group of Christian friends... they were only interested in being a part of their little Christian subculture with their Christian books, Christian CDs, Christian concerts, Christian parents, Christian sports teams. I mean the law is a good thing to know about and now that I am Christian I know that as you say "its no longer that we are under condemnation, but obligation to the law." I just don't know if people who are "unsaved" are really going to get that.
10:09 AM
I felt strangely torn many months ago as I watched the crew of workers remove the 5,280-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama. To the dismay of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and scores of protestors, Federal Court Judge Myron Thompson ruled that the monument was in violation of the United States Constitution and ordered the monument to be removed. A recent USA Today/ CNN/Gallup Poll revealed that 77 percent of Americans did not approve of the ruling, 19 percent approved of it, and 4 percent had no opinion on the matter.
There is little question this debate has been highly contentious and has aroused the ire of thousands of believers in our land. Like many of you, I’m deeply concerned about the ever-widening encroachment of secularism in our culture. Though I personally believe the Federal Court ruling was absurd and highly flawed, I find myself asking, “In all of our protestations about the removal of every vestige of God in our culture, is it possible that we, as believers, missing something important?” I think so.
For months, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has contended that the presence of this monument in his courthouse speaks powerfully to the moral decline of our culture, but I think it will take a lot more than a 5,280-pound piece of granite to do that. What good is a monument of the Ten Commandments if precious few are committed to living by them? When Jesus Christ was asked to name the greatest commandment of all, He said, "Love the Lord your God. And a second is like it, love your neighbor as you love yourself." The greatest evidence of our love for God is obeying His commandments and serving those in need.
Fundamentally, this isn’t an issue involving left wing and the right wing politics. Furthermore, I think it is very naïve to think that a monument has the power to right many of the things that are wrong with our country. Leaving the monument in the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building will not turn the tide of America’s moral decline. We are sorely deluded if we think it will.
It is a disturbing notion, but is it possible that the greatest problem in America is not what is wrong with our courts inasmuch as it is what is wrong with Christianity? Rather than lamenting the Federal Court ruling and arguing over a 5,280-pound granite monument, perhaps we ought to be more concerned about the agenda that Jesus set forth long ago – love God and love others.
Years ago, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., marched into Montgomery, Alabama (of all places) he said, "The judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century." Strangely prophetic, don’t you think?
If Christians are committed to having a positive impact on our culture, let us then take seriously the call to obediently follow Jesus Christ and His commandments. And let us go forth and minister to the sick and the hurting. Let us feed the poor and stand up for the weak and the defenseless. If we do these things, maybe there will be no need for 5,280-pound monuments?
2:40 PM
I am so suprised by the ignorance of our leaders in this country. Ignorance meaning totally uneducated in the meaning "Separation of Church and State." The whole issue stems from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, not voted in the House and Senate into our nations constitution. People are correct when they say that the constitution does not have this clause grafted in. But most people do not know the entire truth to which this phrase is rooted. There was a letter written to Thomas Jefferson concerning the State being an influence upon the church, to which, Thomas Jefferson wrote back saying that there should be a definite "separation of church and state" meaning the state should stay out of the churches business. The state should have no part in what the church does. THAT'S ALL! It did not mean the state can't freely express the Ten Commandments, or that our leaders couldn't pray. As a matter of speaking of the 55 men that signed our constitution and Declaration of Independance, 52 of them were active members, elders and deacons in their churches. In short, let's clear up where "separation of church and state" really comes from and what it really meant when it was in the written form. Zak
9:13 AM
I don't really see the problem in stemming from whether or not the 5,280 lb. monument is having an impact on those people who visit the courthouse and that it therefore doesn't matter if it is removed or not. The problem is comprised in the fact that a very minor percentage of individuals or groups are working vigorously to remove Christianity and anything associated with it. All one has to do is read the news on a daily basis and a multitude of stories surface that show the extent these groups will go in trying to successfully peddle their agenda.
Every day in this country, a school student somewhere is told they cannot exercise their 1st Ammendment right to freedom of religious expression. Some are told they cannot write a book report about anything that pertains to the Bible. Or some students are sent home for wearing a shirt expressing their love for God. Or they cannot hand out pencils on Valentines Day that say, "I love Jesus". Or a teacher is told that they cannot teach anything from the Bible, even if it is only from an historical standpoint.
But it doesn't stop with the schools. Also each day in America, there are individuals that are told by their employers that they cannot read their Bible on company property, even if the employee is on their break and off the clock. Many employers have told their employees that they cannot wear crosses because it might offend other workers.
Also, every day in America it becomes increasingly more difficult for pastors of our churches to talk about the moral issues, such as abortion or homosexuality, or even how certain political candidates feel about those issues without the threat by the government of removing the church's tax exempt status or the possibility of being accused of a hate crime.
Any why has it gotten to this point? I think Jesus said it well in the parable He told in Luke 16. Even though the parable teaches of the wise use of wealth, there is another application that can be applied. Jesus had said that the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. The more I see how the moral decay has begun to grip this country, the more I think about what Jesus said. We as Christians are not willing to stand up and pull together in support of our moral beliefs. In so ignoring this responsibility, we have allowed a small minority to set the tone for the path this nation will travel. Hence, the children of this world have been wiser than we.
So, when we think about whether a 5,280 lb. monument should or shouldn't be removed from the steps of one of our nation's courthouses, we must consider the fact that they will not stop there. Just as Israel has seen that their concessions of land have not stopped the muslims from seeking to annilate them, so we too should recogonize that no amount of concessions will halt the world from their driven agenda of removing Christianity from existence. They are both following the same father. The Bible calls him the father of lies.
5:57 PM
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