GOD AND THE FEDS
Copyright © 2010 by Jim Hull
(Please cite the author if you quote from this work)
"If
all
the States declare thankfulness to God in their preambles, then why is
this
government trying to dismantle the name of God from everything?"
There are two good, ancient reasons why the
Feds are kept out of religion, and they're to protect YOU and avoid
bloodshed.
Here we go:
1. States are designed to
have much more
latitude in how they approach religion. That way, if you despise what
your
state is doing, you can move to another state that's more to your
liking. It's
the genius of the American system. (Nowadays, people in Washington,
D.C. are
trying to usurp those powers in all areas, but at least that's the
original
principle.)
2. If, as many Christian
groups dearly hope,
the U.S. government were to espouse religious words or principles, it
almost
certainly would NOT select YOUR form of Christianity. Eventually you'd
be
forced to pray, or bow down to, the WRONG religion whenever you visited
a
government building, AND your congregation would eventually be
suppressed,
taxed, etc. There are over 30,000 varieties of Christian. What are the
odds the
YOUR version will win out?
It was precisely this kind of meddling by
rulers that caused the deaths of millions between 1500 and 1800 during
religious wars in Europe, and it's why the Founders were so afraid of
government interference in religious affairs.
The very first words of the Bill of Rights
are: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . " It's that important!
If
the Feds put, say, the Ten Commandments up on buildings, it's only a
matter of
time before people are fighting in the streets over which translation
of the
Commandments gets used, or which religion gets to decide what other
texts are
promoted, and which religion gets special treatment in the Halls of
Congress or
in the courts, etc etc. (That would be the religion with the most money
and the
most votes.)
The Founders deliberately took the federal
government out of the religion business to protect ALL religions --
especially
Christianity in its many forms. (If you think nobody but you is truly
Christian, then that's all the more reason you DON'T want the
government taking
sides, because your group will lose out to the wrong people.) It's much
safer
for your congregation, and its chances of converting others, if the
federal
government stays strictly out of religion. Otherwise, you'd almost
certainly be
chafing in rage at how the government would force you to worship. It
wouldn't
be the way you'd want to do it.
Do you really want, for example, Obama to be
in charge of your religious beliefs? For that matter, will there EVER
be a
president who agrees with your particular congregation? Far safer,
then, to
keep the government's nose out of the religion tent altogether.
"But it's just the word 'God' on
government preambles!" Sure, and once anything falls under federal
purview, it grows and expands until it runs every aspect of that thing
in
America. If you start with a simple, "We believe in God" statement
emblazoned on all federal buildings, it's merely a matter of time until
the
religion that wins the next election can hang its own banners, i.e.,
"We
the People of the United States, under the Catholic God . . . " or the
next administration replaces it with "Y____H" or (in candidate Jerry
Brown's case) "Buddha" or . . . get ready for it . . .
"ALLAH" !!! And if the Birthers are right, we'd be only a
stone's throw away from that word printed on everything federal.
Don't laugh: remember, the entire Roman
Empire, at Emperor Constantine's insistence, changed its religion
overnight in 312
A.D., and suddenly everyone went from worshipping Jupiter to
worshipping Jesus.
The Middle East became Muslim in a matter of decades after 632 A.D., as
warriors put populations to the sword if they didn't convert.
Confucianism
swept across China immediately, by government edict, in the second
century
B.C. And Communism overthrew religion in a matter of a few years in
Soviet Russia.
There's no reason it can't happen again, especially if the central
government
has anything to say about it.
So be glad the Feds -- who seem to screw up
everything they touch -- are prevented from making any kind of
statement about
religion on government property. It wouldn't end up as YOUR choice of
religion.
And literally millions could die before it got fixed.
Your congregation has vastly more power when
the government is silent than when the Feds take a stance. Don't
throw
away your freedom of worship and hand it to a bureaucrat. It's that
important.
If you
find any part of this work
quoted without credit to the author, please let him know! Thank
you.
jimhull@jimhull.com
But caveat auctor: Jim reserves the right to put your little screed on his Web site! (And he has no dignity about this, so be careful what you say...)
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