I’ll absolutely agree there is much hypocrisy in our leaders, past and present, and on both sides of the aisle. But yes, the Democrats did boo God, and yes, it is Democrat ideology that is hostile to God and responsible for his removal from influence in our government and other public institutions. This removal has had a cumulative effect on our country and it will continue to worsen, regardless of who gets elected. I don’t anticipate any great revivals of morality…
So you should be able to override your lady’s wishes? Isn’t that stepping on her freedom? Or is your freedom the only one that matters when it comes to her body?
There is nothing in the Constitution mandating a separation of church and state. That phrase has been misunderstood and exaggerated, and has come to be interpreted as meaning an absolute removal of God and Christian influence in society. True, our founding fathers did not want ( nor do I) a Christian theocracy to rule our country. That’s why they made it clear that the government shall not ESTABLISH a state religion. However, they also never intended that the influence of Christianity be absolutely removed either. Many, if not most of our government buildings and monuments, still have the 10 commandments inscribed on them. Wouldn’t it be nice if our elected officials actually took values like " thou shalt not steal and bear false witness" to heart? As I said, government will be what brings us down because the government us us. We are becoming more godless and thus putting more godless people in leadership…[quote=“TheRedComet, post:15, topic:154068, full:true”]
A republic of free citizens is by nature a secular institution. Separation of the church and the state is paramount to the preservation of liberty; a religious state inherently favors members of its own faith over minority faiths. This leads to tyranny. Government by the people must be blind to the faith of the citizentry, showing neither favor or disfavor in its institutions.
Faith is reserved for the citizen and the church. The republican government cannot interfere what rightfully belongs to the citizen and his church. That relationship is sacred and the right to worship CAN NEVER be infringed upon.
By the same token the church must stay out of the operation of the republic, as its biases against other theists and nonbelievers will manifest itself, destabilizing the republic.
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It’s not in the constitution because it doesn’t need to be. Enlightenment ideals, which most of the founders espoused and believed in, emphasized a separation between the church and the state so that one would not interfere with the other. Jefferson was adamant about this and I consider myself a Jeffersonian republican more than anything else.
There is a difference between a secular state and an atheist state. An atheist state is no better than a theocracy as it seeks to destroy religion among the citizenry. This was the mistake the French Republic made after the rise of the Jacobins to power. They attempted to dechristianize France. This was no better than what the Ancien Regime had done in the past, namely force everyone to adhere to Catholicism.
A secular state means to stay out of such matters because of the inherent contradictions and dangers that exist when you allow religion and government to mix.
I’m not advocating coerced prayer. Yes it is pointless. I am suggesting that there was a time in our country, not too long ago, when the Christian values that influenced and shaped our country, we’re prevalent enough that no one was offended when offered up by prayer in schools. I don’t think we are better off by them being removed.
I do have to say though I have seen that the want to destroy the church’s influence during the French Revolution stemmed from the decades upon decades of abuse by the Church itself.
But yeah… trying to deChristianize France and set up the Church of Reason was a huge mistake and only moved to greater factionalism and heads getting lopped off.
I’m not a Catholic and I believe a lot of what Catholics believe is not Biblical Christianity. That being said, I believe all denominations, sects and Christian groups, however they are divided, have done as much or more to harm the cause of Christ than atheists and secularists. It was also in the 19th century when a multitude of Bibles began coming out, each with different doctrines.
Since our government doesn’t rule by force, Satan had to use other means to diminish and remove God from our consciousness. Disinformation is a tactic he’s been using for centuries. The results of this are just really coming to fruition fairly recently- and will get progressively worse.
When you ask " whose Christian values" my answer is: what Christ inspired and preserved in his word. Step outside of that and you can see the results.
And yet James Madison asserted our constitution was only fit for a Christian people. And would only last so long as the people remained Christian. Jefferson was a deist. He was not at all hostile to to Christianity and I don’t believe his idea of the separation of church and state meant that the church was to have no influence over the state, but rather that the state have no influence over the church. Huge difference…
The hatred is there as you well demonstrate. Obama outright scorned Christianity and helped foster the growing animosity. No, we aren’t as persecuted as in other countries yet, but as ideas like abortion have progressed to outright murder of viable babies, so intolerance of Christianity will grow into outright persecution…
I’m well aware that evil, vice and corruption have always existed and been done.
I believe you are older than me, so you have seen our society change over the years as I have. For example: today over 50 % of marriages end in divorce and 60-70% of children are born out of wedlock, or are in broken homes in being raised by single parents, especially mothers.
Family is the next thing in my OP that I believe must be destroyed to likewise destroy our nation.
How does lacking the influence of a father in a home benefit our society? The statistics of all I listed have gotten progressively worse in the last several decades. Do you not see a correlation between any of these things?
Absolutely Satan is concerned about the rest of the world, but as I stated in my OP, God had a purpose for America and so was instrumental in it’s founding and growth into a world power. We did so very quickly too.
If Satan can take America down, he will achieve more simply because of our world influence and dominance, but also because we have done more to spread the Gospel than any other nation in history- that’s what Satan hates the most.
