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Posted on 07/07/2010 4:21:01 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I hope you have viewed my Two Minute Warning video commentary on what I believe is the greatest threat to religious freedom in my lifetime.
If you haven’t seen it yet, we will keep it up at ColsonCenter.org for all this week-because it is one of the most important messages I’ve delivered. And over 150,000 people have already watched it. Please, watch the video and tell your friends, your family, and your acquaintances about it.
Here’s why: I believe the administration is seeking to redefine the meaning of religious freedom, shrinking it to mean nothing more than the right to worship privately.
If successful, this would emasculate the first, and most foundational, freedom in the Bill of Rights. A freedom we get from God himself because religious freedom is rooted in the very nature of God.
As I said in my Two Minute Warning, Hillary Clinton, in a speech at Georgetown University, talked about “freedom of worship” being a priority of the administration. And this was no slip of the tongue. As Christianity Today reported, the President has used the term in several speeches. The State Department claims the two terms-“freedom of worship” and “freedom of religion”-are interchangeable.
But that’s nonsense.
As Nina Shea at Freedom House told CT, mere freedom of worship “excludes the right to raise your children in your faith...the right to...elect your religious leaders, to carry out charitable activities, to evangelize, [and] to have religious education or seminary training.”
Even the Chinese allow freedom of worship. But if a Chinese pastor speaks out on political or cultural issues, prison, or worse, awaits him.
And, my friends, the same fate could await Christians here if we allow the government to head down this road.
I am not given to hysterics or to conspiracy theories. But I do understand the English language. And I know how government can use language to manipulate thought. I did a pretty good job of it when I was an assistant to President Nixon in the ’70s.
Folks, please, see my Two Minute Warning at ColsonCenter.org. But there is something else I need you to do for me. I want to hear from you. I was invited by my pastor to speak from the pulpit last Sunday about this threat. Folks came up to me afterward and admitted they had not understood the difference between freedom of religion and freedom of worship. And some still didn’t get it.
I need to know: Do you understand what’s at stake here? Do you see how redefining religious freedom could be a dagger to the heart of the Christian faith in this country?
Go to ColsonCenter.org and click on “Speak Out with Chuck.” Talk to me. Tell me you understand, or if you think I’m wrong, tell me why! And tell me: Have you seen examples at school or work where your religious rights-or those of others-are being violated? I need examples for future commentaries.
Will you join me in speaking out in defense of religious freedom? Like the Manhattan Declaration says, will you “fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will [you] render to Caesar what is God's?”
lulz, truth beknown, given this lamearse, idiot-ridden Jack Squat Administration penchant for control and power -— look at how they want to control what we watch at home, how much water we use at home, how much energy we use at home, how we eat and the food we eat at home, etc., etc., etc. -— rest assured, Jack Squat and ‘they’ do NOT want you to even have THE RIGHT to worship in your own home...... =.=
It always bother me when people say freedom OF worship, instead of freedom TO worship........but then that’s probably just me.
With each new day in the O administration, a new dark corner is revealed. The devil himself must have a cabinet post of some kind. May God give us strength for this battle.
No it isn’t you. Freedom of Religion IS the free exercise of religion! Freedom of or to Worship means they can control where AND what constitutes “worship”. They are no even close to the same in meaning, and rest assured it is intentional word manipulation.
I hear you, but at some point we will have to decide whether or not Islam is a religion or a sedition, and how to control what masquerades as worship. (Not that I trust Obama's crew to do this!)
Not constitutional but we're talking about communists and bambi is wasting no time getting them on the high court.
The 2-minute (actually 3:35) warning was a good one. Thanks Chuck.
Newspeak...”freedom to worship”, “shovel ready”, “too big to fail”, “crony capitalism”
“Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration.”
— Ayn Rand
Obama CANNOT change the Constitution. Period.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”
Seems VERY clear to me. ;-)
So what about worshipping publicly in a church?
Placemark.
We say "freedom of speech" rather than "freedom to speak." If you reflect on this, you'll see the difference: someone may grant you the freedom to speak but not allow you to say what you want. It's the freedom to deliver a specific outcome that is a true freedom here.
Having written that, I recalled an old joke. In the Communist times, a Russian and an American argue. "I have as much freedom of speech as you do," says the Russian to the American. "Of course not," replies the latter, "I can go the center of my town and yell `Nixon is an idiot." The Russian laughs: "I can do the same; I can go to the center of my town and yell `Nixon is an idiot."
I think that this joke illustrates the difference between freedom to speak and the freedom of speech very well.
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