How Christians Have Lost Their Voice,
And Will Loose Their Freedom:
First, what most people think is separation of church and state is related to things like not being allowed to have the 10 Commandments on public property, not being allowed to pray in schools, not being allowed to say Jesus in a graduation ceremony, and not being able to share Jesus everywhere. But when we look at these issues of freedom, where are they at? Most of these are all in public settings, setting where people are all together... The 10 Commandments are great laws to live by but the issue is not that they are not good but that the government is endorsing one religion and not giving freedom to another. The choice is to either take out the commandments or to add other religious texts from various religions; however, a majority of Christians would not like other religions referred to...
Ah, but here it is, Christians wanting freedom of religion, but only for themselves and not for others. Does allowing freedom for others mean we are condoning their beliefs and rejecting our own, certainly not. What it does mean is that Christians are putting themselves in a very difficult hole in society. Toleration is the cry we hear from the liberal foot-hills of free speech and if Christians and right-wing people would be smart, they would accept toleration as a valid point, not only in allowing more discussion of other beliefs but using it as a stepping stone to also allow their own faith and beliefs to be heard and also to remain valid in the eyes of others.
Prayer in school is another thing that was lost almost a half-century ago and is still very much spoken about, especially by the older people of my generation. They feel Americas decline was based on this; of course one would say that the decline caused the idea of ending prayer to come up so something was wrong before that ever happened. Still, think about it - how would you feel if a Muslim was allowed to pray every morning and your child had to be a part in it? Does that seem fair? You say "We are a Christian nation" and to that I say "So was Germany and the Nazis'"... I am not saying we are the same, except we cannot put faith and nationalism on the same scale, Rome did that and fell between their King and Pope conflicts as well if you read the history books (See: Reason why America added Separation of Church and State). To say others faith exist in America is not a denial of our own, in fact, if we would open our eyes we would see it as a vast amount of people needing to see the light of Christ instead of seeing them as political enemies (enemies who Christ told us to love by the way - Matthew 5:43-48 anyone?).
...Now, I do think paying homage to Jesus Christ is a good thing that should be allowed at a graduation ceremony. Why? Because I think the student earned the right to speak and should be allowed to thank whatever influences are in his or her life. However, again it is important to stress that if we allow this freedom of speech and religion for one, a Christian, then we must allow it for another - otherwise we are just being plain hypocrites. One never has to agree with what is said, but out of respect, one should always respect a person for who they are, including different beliefs. If there is no respect for another person, then I can assure you there will never be open dialogue in which to persuade them to the gospel of Christ in the first place. Does this mean we deny our conviction and faith, no - but we do not force others to deny theirs either...
… And this is where Christians in America have begun to hang themselves - we cry to freedom of religion and speech and we cry to the obliteration to the separation of church and state, not for others but for us, so that Christians may once again rule America as it should be. The problem is that in doing this we are setting ourselves up for a Civic Church, one whose freedom of speech is going to be halted in the mutual agreement on civility, peace, and toleration.
If there is no civic church then there will be a destroying of the church as it eventually must go underground. Freedom of speech is already being lost by Christians in other developed nations when they preach against things like homosexuality. Now it is we who must cease our freedom so that another can have theirs, toleration and all. But who is tolerating the Christian voice in this situation, why does the KKK get to continue it speech and demonstrations but Christians are loosing their own? Why is a good question… And I honestly think it is something we have been doing to ourselves - now that public thought of different religions and ideas being accepted grow, as the information we are fed is always changing, people question absolute truth.. and instead of answering their queries, instead of discussing faith with them, we have taken the approach of merely telling them they are wrong, they are evil, they are sinful - we forgot that we to are sinful and wrong (Romans 3:21-24), this is why Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-11).
Somewhere we lost ourselves as "Christians in a nation called America", we accepted politics over true faith, voting morals instead of sharing them with our feet and by our actions, we have lost our voice and our only true chance to find it is to look to Jesus once again; this son of God who taught his disciples who never knew who he was until the end (MK 8:27-30; LK 24: 13-35), who spent time with sinners despite the murmurings of the religious authorities of his time(MT 9:8; MK 2:15-17); , who told us to pray for our enemies (MT 5:43-48), and who told us to give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is God's (Mt 22:21; MK 12:17; LK 20:25).
… And this is where Christians in America have begun to hang themselves - we cry to freedom of religion and speech and we cry to the obliteration to the separation of church and state, not for others but for us, so that Christians may once again rule America as it should be. The problem is that in doing this we are setting ourselves up for a Civic Church, one whose freedom of speech is going to be halted in the mutual agreement on civility, peace, and toleration.
If there is no civic church then there will be a destroying of the church as it eventually must go underground. Freedom of speech is already being lost by Christians in other developed nations when they preach against things like homosexuality. Now it is we who must cease our freedom so that another can have theirs, toleration and all. But who is tolerating the Christian voice in this situation, why does the KKK get to continue it speech and demonstrations but Christians are loosing their own? Why is a good question… And I honestly think it is something we have been doing to ourselves - now that public thought of different religions and ideas being accepted grow, as the information we are fed is always changing, people question absolute truth.. and instead of answering their queries, instead of discussing faith with them, we have taken the approach of merely telling them they are wrong, they are evil, they are sinful - we forgot that we to are sinful and wrong (Romans 3:21-24), this is why Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-11).
Somewhere we lost ourselves as "Christians in a nation called America", we accepted politics over true faith, voting morals instead of sharing them with our feet and by our actions, we have lost our voice and our only true chance to find it is to look to Jesus once again; this son of God who taught his disciples who never knew who he was until the end (MK 8:27-30; LK 24: 13-35), who spent time with sinners despite the murmurings of the religious authorities of his time(MT 9:8; MK 2:15-17); , who told us to pray for our enemies (MT 5:43-48), and who told us to give to Caesar what is Caesars and give to God what is God's (Mt 22:21; MK 12:17; LK 20:25).
~ Boldness & Compassion
Other Relevant Articles:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-07-23-faith-edit_x.htm
http://erlc.com/article/to-whom-do-you-pledge-your-allegiance/
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0728/p09s02-coop.html
http://erlc.com/article/to-whom-do-you-pledge-your-allegiance/
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0728/p09s02-coop.html
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