Posted on 08/22/2003 10:01:41 AM PDT by Vindiciae Contra TyrannoSCOTUS
A large number of Americans were plunged into darkness last week. When the power was restored, the lights could be flicked on again, and things could go back to normal.
But how much of our country is in a spiritual blackout?
After all, this is a country in which posting the Ten Commandments in a government building ignites a political controversy. A powerful lobby hell-bent on bringing about a secular America will fight any action that pays homage to our Judeo-Christian heritage.
How can "Thou Shalt Not Kill" be viewed as signifying the onset of a state religion? Or "Honor Thy Mother and Father"? There is hope. Many Americans are willing to fight the secular lobby's intention to impose a spiritual blackout throughout all of America's government buildings.
No doubt, many of the secularists are motivated by a misplaced idealism that demonstrates a faulty understanding of our country's founding. They do not understand the intentions of the founding fathers. The secular lobby and its allies in education and the news media have promoted flawed ideas.
Particularly notable for his courage in challenging this secular lobby is Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who has placed a monument that lists the Ten Commandments in the state's judicial building.
When challenged to remove it, Chief Justice Moore is standing his ground, even if it means risking a $5,000-a-day fine imposed on the state by a U.S. district judge. While the state would initially be assessed a fine, eventually it could lead to U.S. marshals removing the monument.
It is Chief Justice Moore's historically accurate contention that the Ten Commandments represent the guiding principles that have shaped American law. In the view of the court, the monument erected by Chief Justice Moore represents an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by government. Fortunately, Chief Justice Moore is intent on taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court.
In other good news, the United States House of Representatives demonstrated common sense by voting 260-161 last month in favor of an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary appropriations bill sponsored by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind. The bill would prevent federal funds from being used to enforce the decision. However, the Senate still has to vote on its version of the appropriations bill. When it does, the House and Senate versions will have to be reconciled in conference committee.
Our hearts and prayers should go out to Chief Justice Moore as he continues his valiant fight to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian principles that have guided our country so well for over two centuries.
It is important that those senators who serve on the Judiciary Committee be made to realize that millions of everyday Americans still want our local, state and federal governments to acknowledge the values that they use as the touchstone to live their lives.
After all, it's bad enough when the electricity is turned off for a few hours. Think about what condition our country would be in without having the Ten Commandments to illuminate our lives during the last two centuries. What if the secular lobby triumphs repeatedly and we spend the next 50 years or more in an ever-increasing spiritual blackout?
It's a pretty scary thought.
Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.
In other good news, the United States House of Representatives demonstrated common sense by voting 260-161 last month in favor of an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary appropriations bill sponsored by Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind. The bill would prevent federal funds from being used to enforce the decision. However, the Senate still has to vote on its version of the appropriations bill. When it does, the House and Senate versions will have to be reconciled in conference committee.
For those who have been misled by the media, incompetent federal judges, demented schoolmasters (professors) or some trashback Marxist diatribe on the FIRST Amendment, see AMENDMENT ONE - FREEPER rwfromkansas to correct your gross conceptual errors.
Others who already understand their Constitution can proceed with:
The Congressional testimony presented in Congress, the Court, and the Constitution, explains how your representatives can ensure the federal courts comply with the Constitution.
Those who support Federalism contact your representatives about voting for Ten Commandments Defense Act of 2003 & Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Those who want incompetent federal judges removed, contact your representatives:
The following will educate all but the most implacable anti-Christians on the Church/State issue:
Solzhenitsyn's consistent resort to the context of religion for his social and political pronouncements is apparent in his Templeton Address of 1983, in which he speaks about his own country. He rehearses how he heard his elders explain all the horrors that that the Bolshevik Revolution had inflicted upon the citizenry by saying, simply, "Men have forgotten God. That is why all this has happened." And he goes on to say that if he were to give an account for all the horrors of our terrible twentieth century, he could do no better to provide a pithy explanation than to repeat what he had heard from his elders: Men have forgotten God" Solzhenitsyn On America
1785, If men are so wicked with religion,what would they be if without it? Franklin's Advice to Thomas Paine Regarding the Age of Reason
He may be technically right, but what he should be doing, and the rest of the Christian movement should do this as well, is accuse the other side of intolerance.
Modern western civilization has a serious intolerance problem with Christianity. Maybe Al-queada has a point. If the west is intolerant with Christians, then at some point, moslems will have a problem with practicing their religion in a westernized civilization too.
From what he said...its as much a matter of the Federal Govts. heavy handedness in issues that are more appropriately handled by the State of Alabama
As it is the ten commandments themselves...not as a relgious artifact but a historical one- one that is the essence of America....
The 10 Commandments are the essence of America...everything we are and have follow from them..without them we are nothing but what the state says we are
There are only two forms of govt on this planet...those under God and those under satan
Exactly
"In God we trust
"One nation under God"
accuse the other side of intolerance.
A cross in a jar of urine is considered tolerance. A gay symbol in a jar of urine is intolerance."--Josh McDowell, "Tolerating the Intolerable", Josh McDowell Ministry
Article 11 in the treaty [English version only not in the Arabic version] reads:
As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen; and as the states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of harmony existing between the two countries.
Here is another one for you:
"[Numerous evidences previously cited] add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." --The U. S. Supreme Court in Holy Trinity Church v. U. S. (1892), reiterated in MacIntosh v. U.S. (1931)
Treaty of Tripoli The Treaty of Tripoli, specifically article XI, is often misused in editorial columns, articles, as well as in other areas of the media, both Christian and secular. We have received numerous questions from people who have been misled by the claims that are being made, namely, that America was not founded as a Christian nation. Advocates of this idea use the Treaty of Tripoli as the foundation of their entire argument, and we believe you deserve to know the truth regarding this often misused document.
However a list of the founders and their 'religious' affilations:
A Table of the Religious Affiliations of American Founders
Was either that or 'the_truth_fairy'!
Hence my choice.;)
This is great. We whine about Congress, Bush et al for constantly caving to the left, then we got a guy who stands up and we say he's "getting stubborn".
May God bless Judge Moore and may he stay stubborn.
And all of them knew their Bible and prayed while attending school. And none of them would have any problem with a public memorial to the 10 Commandments.
Their religious backgrounds would so suggest logically thinking.
(In his farewell address )Washington: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens."
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