Posted on 05/19/2008 8:58:23 AM PDT by William Tell 2
The assault on America's religious beliefs is not a new one. It is derived from a practice which Damon Linker, the author of Theocons: Secular America Under Siege referenced in his December 2007 article for The New Republic titled, "Atheism's Wrong Turn, Mindless argument found in godless books." He stated that far from being what modern journalists incorrectly label the "new atheism," the campaign to "act as missionaries for unbelief" is centuries old.
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The American version of this mission to demonize religion is founded on a distorted interpretation of the establishment and free-exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Those clauses are: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Everyone should understand the plain meaning of those words - that is, everyone who is not burdened by a post-graduate education from an Ivy League college. It means that the government is prohibited from setting up a state religion and that no barriers will be erected against the practice of any religion.
Despite its plain meaning, the First Amendment has been used to forcibly remove religion from not just our classrooms but all government institutions and to dilute the religious content of much of American life. Neither the establishment clause nor the free-exercise clause was intended to preclude all interactivity between church and state.
Yet, the courts have ruled to the contrary. Ergo, theophobes pretend to believe in the infallibility of the judiciary when determining First Amendment cases. How they reconcile judicial infallibility with the Dred Scott case, Plessy v. Ferguson and other similar rulings is another matter.
The judiciary is the preferred weapon of choice for the secularists. They understand that imposing their beliefs via the ballot is futile. They know that a sympathetic judge can replace millions of votes. They also know that they would not get those votes anyway.
Ironically, the same people who decry the Supreme Court's ruling Bush v. Gore are the very same people who hijacked the judiciary to become a superlegislator. Some judges, who are all too happy to do so, have become dictators. They levy taxes, they conduct military policy - and they tell people where and when they can practice their religion.
Such judges are vital, as far as these atheist proselytizers are concerned, because most people, especially those benighted red state conservatives, do not understand the danger of religious expression. They do not realize that a college football player voluntarily praying after a touchdown is tantamount to Congress making a law respecting the establishment of religion. They do not understand how a Christmas tree in the quadrangle of a state university campus will contribute to the establishment of an ecclesiocracy.
One can ask why someone has not made the argument that to deny schoolchildren the time to pray voluntarily before class comes closer to violating their free exercise of religion than the allowance of that time violates the establishment clause. Prohibiting free exercise of religion is a direct violation of the First Amendment.
Theophobes have successfully propagated the myth that religious expression in certain public institutions is unconstitutional. They have persuaded the elites in government that their opinion is law. The theophobes and their allies in the media and the judiciary have in effect made God unconstitutional.
However, help is on the way. Organizations like the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) act as the antidote to secularism. The ACLJ litigates cases where the ACLU and other groups are suing to eradicate religion from the public square. They are very successful at counteracting the ACLU.
How successful these groups will be depends on the public. The mainstream media will not be helping to communicate the fanaticism of the theophobes (indeed they do everything they can to make religious people seem like fools). It is necessary for the public to let the government - all branches, federal, state, and local - know how they feel.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Until now, religious people have not squeaked much. When they did it was usually something that made religious leaders look silly.
The cacophony of complaints by theophobes is now seismic. The pious need to start organizing and respond. They need to respond and to persuade the judiciary of the error of its ways. Religious people cannot expect others to do this.
Religious people need to understand that if they depend solely on elections to change things, change will not occur. Delegating responsibility for maintaining the law solely to elected officials and only during elections will not work. They need to do more. They need to express their discontent not just on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Remember - God helps those who help themselves.
Michael P. Tremoglie is author of the critically acclaimed novel A Sense of Duty, available at Barnesandnoble.com.
Remember - God helps those who help themselves.
I love it the most quoted verus in the Bible except its not in the Bible.
I think God has become so displeased with America He has removed His protective and guiding hands from us. What ever we get from here on out is of our own making.
The Dred-Scott case gets a bad rap as one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in history. However, it was correct constitutionally, and as abominable as it may be from a MORAL perspective, it was the only correct action the Court could take using the document as it existed at that time. Fixing the flaws in the Constitution is the job of the Congress (and the People), not the Supreme Court.
The Court, in that case, actually did what Supreme Courts are supposed to do. They used the CONSTITUTION, as it was constructed at the time, to reach their decision. Their decisions pointed out some MAJOR flaws in the original document which, after much debate, years of strife and a war, was legally amended to fix the defects.
The Supreme Court is not supposed to use moral arguments or “feelings” in their rulings. They are supposed to rule on the constitutionality of the law.
There is and always has been, a legislative procedure which can be followed to amend the constitution. It was never intended to be changed by judicial fiat.
Since I believe that God is the creator of all, is all-powerful, and knows what is going to happen, then everything that happens must be part of His plan
Hardly. Dred Scott is a decision that never should have been made. When Chief Justice Taney ruled that blacks were not, and could never be U.S. citizens then that removed the jurisdiction of the court completely and Taney should have gone no further. Continuing as he did was the worst form of legislating from the bench.
We must stop these atheists from imposing their religionon on the rest of us.
We must stop these atheists from imposing their religion on the rest of us.
“I think God has become so displeased with America He has removed His protective and guiding hands from us. What ever we get from here on out is of our own making.”
I think God is still blessing and protecting America, to a great degree, for the sake of the remnant of godly people still alive. But soon a generation will arise that “knows not God” and that generation will pay.
Specifically, they will pay for the tens of millions of aborted babies who’s blood cries out to God for vengeance.
The only thing saving us is God himself - there are still the prayers of the faithful, even if we are only a remnant. We are still the most blessed nation on the planet and his protective hand and mercies are clearly upon us. We should praise him and thank him every day and continue to humbly ask for his continued provision and protection.
However, the Bible is clear about the wave of the future and we know it will only get worse as the Godless inflict their temporary power on us. We should do as scripture says and pray and fast for our country, our people, our politicians, the situation with illegal immigrants and our non-secure borders, drugs, gangs, etc.
A USA without God is not a USA I want to be a part of.
Amen.
Lose God lose society. And then the night comes.
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