A religion is a set of beliefs....Therefore religion is being taught in schools...
Just maybe not yours.
Or mine.
all religions can be wrong, but not all religions can be right.
The founders of major religions were all searching for the truth.
Jesus claimed to be
the Truth
non of the founders of major religions claimed sinlessness or perfections
Jesus was and is perfect and without sin.
They claimed to have found "a way"
Jesus said He was "the WAY"
They are all dead
Jesus is Life, and is alive!
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In regards to foundations of this country...and discussion of separation of church and state
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Many of the Founders of this country were the Christian Leaders of their day
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Rev. D. John Witherspoon was responsible for two American translations of the Bible (including our first family Bible)
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Charles Thompson was responsible for Thompson's Bible
*Ben Rush not only published the 1st mass produced Bible in America, but founded our first Bible society & the Sunday School movement
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Francis Hopkins produced the 1st American Hymnbook
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John Langdon and
Charles Cotesworth Pickney founded the Amercian Bible Society
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Rufas King founded the New York Bible and Common Prayer Book Society.
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James McHenry founded the Maryland Bible Society
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Alexander Hamilton formed the Christian Constitutional Society to elect people to office who would support Christianity and the Constitution
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John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on 6/28/1813 "The general principles on-which the fathers achieved independence were...the general principles of Christianity...I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God."
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Thomas Jefferson in 1774, while serving in the Virginia Assembly, personally introduced a resolution calling for a day of fasting and prayer. Later, while serving as the governor of Virginia (1889-81), Jefferson decreed a day of "Public and solemn thanksgiving and prayer to the Almighty God."
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John Jay was the original chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and one of the men most responsible for the Constitution, wrote, "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty- as well as the privilege and interest- of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."
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George Washington in his Farewell Address argued for the vital role of religion and morality in-our nation: "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 pillers." And he also said this! "without such a firm foundation liberties and freedoms were at risk: Let is simply be asked "Where is the security for life, for reputation, and for property if the sense of religious obligation desert?'"
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7/28/1787 At Constitutional Convention,
Ben Franklin "If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We've been assured in the sacred writing 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.'"
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It is so unfortunate that so many Americans get their education from the TV and movies. The term "separation of Church and state " is not in the U.S. Constitution. LOOK for it you will never find it. you will however find it in the constitution of the former Soviet Union.
As known here It originated from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote on New Year's Day in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association.
They had shared with Jefferson their fear that the government might establish a state church...(This was very common through out Europe ) To clarify intent to these clergyman that the First Amendment prohibits the U.S. Congress from establishing a state church, he declared that a 'wall of separation between church and state should be maintained' in order to keep the government from interfering with the free exercise of religion. "I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise,' thus building a wall of separation of Church and State."
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The law is intended to place the restrictions on the GOVERNMENT, NOT upon the people.
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1801 Jefferson wrote " The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they (the clergy ) have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty , science, and the freest expansion of the human mind."
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Every person has a set of beliefs. Therefore even the athiest is religious. Unfortunately people are not quick at understanding this.
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Technically RELIGION is being taught in school, just maybe not yours or mine. But religion is indeed being taught.
To avoid "Christianity" in the schools is to avoid the foundation of traditional education in America. I was reading recently how a teacher was banned from reading the Constitution in it's entirety to his class, because of the "religious undertones". How can one understand Shake-spear in his fullest without having studied KJV? It is the foundation which the house stands upon. Imagine a house, this house might be your family, but lets for now consider this house to be society.
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Ours (America) was the great experiment. It was the only time in history that a government was founded upon Christian Principles. EVER. Yes, many nations had Christians in them, claimed to fight for the cause of Christ etc. But when looking at the facts, one will see, this was not their foundation.
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Our Foundation was solid enough to last much longer than any imagined it would. This year actually marks 400 years since the founding of Jamestown. Our founding fathers built this country upon a rock.
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Today america sleeps, she sleeps in her own bubble, media driven, shattered family's, too busy to tired to notice. Much of the "society" living off of sound bites they heard on the news, and lenghthy commentary offered by very "religious" people who may not hold their same views even, but again, America is exhausted, or busy, or just looking to be entertained.
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And so a new "enlightenment" emerges. And chisels away at the foundation, stealing it away. America, "pumps up the volume" to ignore the sound. The enemy then continues more boldly, and begins to hang about the house working night and day, recruiting the children of the house, and it is ok, because the talk is fast, and hey it looks like a good thing. "Restructuring" and all that. America is too tired to think. She doesn't seem to remember how much that house cost to build. How many lives, how much blood was spilt to pay off that mortgage....She's gone in to debt, fixin' it up, making it pretty. The back fill to replace the the rock being mined from beneath our little house is sand and gravel. The babies are playing in it. The kids think it'll be like living on the beach. The people who remember what it was like before, have been stuffed away in homes, and referred to as "out of it", "not with the times".
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Foundation, it matters, the house built upon sand will not STAND.
There is nothing new under the sun.
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My point is not that we should teach all religions in school. Or that we should teach merely one. My point in this is that we need to wake up to the fact that Religion is being taught, there is no way to avoid it. Which one is the question, and do you want it being taught? The question is a humorous one.
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The ignorance on the topic of separation of Church and state is sad and rather humorous too. Because people will fight for it, but it never existed, it is being created. And that is very dangerous. Grab a cup of Joe, put on your thinking cap, and lets hunt down the truth of the matter.
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"What is truth" you wonder. Pilot wondered this too.
Jesus is the Truth
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Truth is "fidelity to the original".
Much debating and inspecting of trees went on during last nights fabulous flurry, and we opted to hunt for a tree...
