As I wrote over on my Roland's Ramblings blog:
Out of respect for the First Amendment, I cannot help but have the opinion that candidates for elective office, especially those persons who seek election to the United States Congress, and/or those who already hold elective office, should keep religion out of politics.It seems to me that some people think that their religion is the correct one and that everyone else should conform to their religious beliefs. Gee, if memory serves me correctly, I learned at a very early age in elementary school history class that the early colonists came to the New World in order to escape religious persecution and oppression and to safely observe their own religious beliefs.
I found an article in Wikipedia to be very interesting and I highly suggest you click on over to read:
Religion and politics in the United States
Political conservatives and many persons who have embraced the Tea Party movement seem to have forgotten that very basic principal of the United States of America as they try to force their religious beliefs on others who do not share the same religious beliefs, things like prayer in school, returning CHRIST in xMas, declarations that the USA is a Christian nation, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera (as Yul Brynner said in The King and I).
It is my passionately held opinion that religion and politics do not mix and that religion and politics should be separate. "And now you know… the rest of the story." as told by me. This is (with all due respect to Paul Harvey) Roland Hansen ............. Good Day!
7 comments:
And here I was always taught that our founding fathers and the documents on which our country was created were guided by (their's and our) Judeo- Christian beliefs, without favoring or prohibiting the free exercise of any particular religion; i.e., an established national/state religion...
So far it has worked except for those who cannot distinguish/differentiate between the words "of" and "from..."
Exactly, Dave. I have a hard time watching Christianity being pushed out of eacxh and every part of public life and then hearing certain atheists I know complain that they are being persecuted. Those who seek separation of church and state should look around and ask why it is I can't pray in school but the school can make me take classes on Muslim "Culture".
Spot on, Roland.
I've been raised to leave religion and politics out of conversations with most people. Fortunately for me, I have a few friends that I can debate these topics with in complete confidence that they will remain friends at the conclusion. Unfortunately for me, the world is filled with people with whom I cannot.
I am pretty confident that, if Thomas Jefferson was a follower of Mohammed, the Declaration of Independence would have been guided by principles espoused by that religion.
Funny thing is there is so much more commonality between religions than there is difference, especially when it comes to the manner in how we treat fellow humans.
To CWMartin, just because Christians got there first doesn't mean it's superior. I am hard-pressed to believe that there are any schools which mandate the study of Muslim culture. Your unnecessary use of quotes reveals your bias. Beyond that, I am pretty sure you could get away with a prayer or two in school. I know I always said one before a Calculus exam.
Chili, you mystify me with the "got there first" comment. The quotes around culture doesn't as much show my bias as my dismay at the exposing of our children to the muslim faith under the cultural codewords of "teaching culture." If you keep yopur eyes open, stories about schools teaching such things to American classrooms sprout up from time to time. And I have casual friends who would say that teaching anything based on Christian "culture" is an unforgivable sin but would have no problem with Muslim classes. Point being, too many people out there use "freedom of religion" to promote "freedom from Christianity". Many people who promote secularism are far from even handed in doing so.
Thomas Jefferson had an interesting view on religion. And it does not seem to fit the stereotypical perspective that many people have of this very important historical Founding Father of the United States.
I would like to suggest readers take a look at Thomas Jefferson on Christianity & Religion.
Another recommended read is The Religious Affiliation of Third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.
My point was to express that my rights as a Christian are constantly attacked in favor of both secularists and other faiths. I do not feel there is religious freedom in this world for any but the atheists and secularists. As for Jefferson, I leave this in closing:
"And the disciples came and said to Him, 'Why do You speak to them in parables?' He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ...
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed...." Matthew 13:10-15
"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination."
- Mark Twain
That being said, one might take the information supplied in your post and that in the comments; and perhaps not worry so much about politics and religion as much as government religion. While the former mix has more to do with a discussion of philosophies, the latter has do with the ideological control of a population.
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