In China there’s the state approved Church and the underground Church. We look at that with our Western eyes and we wonder how such a thing could be.
But here in America, it seems to me we’ve just got our own twist on things. We don’t have a state approved Church but we sure do have state approved morality.
Over the last few years we’ve seen regulations from the state forcing pharmacists to disepense emergency contraceptives, we’ve seen directives from the Department of Health and Human Services forcing health insurance plans to cover surgical sterilization, birth control, and prescriptions that induce early-term abortions. We’ve had laws forcing pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advertize what they don’t provide in abortions. (As if the only “choice” was abortion.) We’ve had Catholic agencies forced out child welfare services. We’ve had funds removed from Catholic organizations helping victims of the sex trade.
We’ve seen cases in Europe where parents were disallowed from caring for children because they believed in traditional marriage.
Religion is seen by this administration and many utopian minded secularists as something that happens in a church or synagogue. But outside of those walls only state approved morality matters. While many Christians in China have to hide going to Church on Sunday, we’ll soon be forced to hide every other day of the week.
Increasingly the freedom of religion is being narrowed into a “freedom to worship” that allows for no public actions outside the state approved morality. In some ways, this state approved morality is more dangerous than state approved morality.
Let’s face it, when we start getting our morality dictated to us by Washington D.C., nothing good follows. If we’re not careful, we’ll start thinking about our political leaders as religious leaders.
Oh wait.
December 16, 2011 at 9:41 pm
I have such a hard time understanding why some doctors in our area are allowed to practice concierge care where you have to pay a $1600 a person fee up front to even be seen by them and no one is screaming about lack of access to services. However, when a Catholic hospital says "we don't do sterilizations or provide the morning after pill" or where a pharmacy doesn't want to carry the morning after pill everyone screams about lack of access to services.
December 16, 2011 at 11:24 pm
One thing the state has not counted on is that when the state imposes its morality on the people, and the people practice the imposed morality or immorality, as the case may be, the state must assume the guilt, the responsibility, the temporal punishment due to the sin, and its imposed immorality. For many years now, criminals have pointed their finger at society and been given a pass. Now, the people can point their finger at government and not be subject to the wrath of God. Not that the wrath of God is less desireable than the wrath of the secular state. Obama, Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Nero, there is no differenceBUUUTTT, OUR founding principles dictate FREEDOM and relying on our founding principles, which are to be taught in every grammar school, our culture may be healed and tyranny eradicated, for the TRUTH be known, our founding principles are based on the truth, THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, SO HELP ME GOD. Without the presidency, Obama is still only a man, created in the image of God and endowed with unalienable rights which Obama has publicly denied. So, what is left? Decency requires that I must censor the next sentence. When God gets through with Obama even the devil will feel sorry for him.
December 16, 2011 at 11:32 pm
I have to laugh at the picture of Obama as the Pope. Obama does not have any idea that the Pope is the Servant of the Servants of God. Even as Jesus washed the feet of his Apostles, the Pope washes the feet of the Apostles' successors. Obama will have to learn how to kiss the ground his constituents walk upon and wash the dust from their feet. Obama's greed for his peoples' land and their possessions will sink him into the abyss rimmed with brimestone and fire. I understand that when a person's immortal soul with it's body goes to hell, no person in heaven remembers him.
December 17, 2011 at 2:21 am
Sooo, what exactly is the difference between "secular" and "religious" when the "secular" demand the right to define morality or all, define truth for all, control and define marriage for all? The difference is when the "religious" object to the "seculars" definitions of these things and to them being required for all because their definitions are not "religious", the "religious" are accused of ramming religion down the "seculars" throats. Secular is a myth, it's ALL religion, just different gods.
December 17, 2011 at 1:22 pm
@Anonymous 9:21 "Secular is a myth, it's ALL religion, just different gods." The one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God of LOVE and FREEDOM. "I have drawn you with bands of LOVE" Our LOVE and FREEDOM have been abused and nullified by the tyrant. It is time to go back to true LOVE and real FREEDOM, to oour founding principles, to representative government. Congress hears the voice of the people and does the will of God to make all men free. The Chief Executive executes the law as made by the will of the people and the Judicial branch of government, the Supreme Court, the personification of almighty God's PERFECT JUSTICE winnows the good from the evil using the Ten Commandments as their touchstone. The Ten Commandment are kept by God, Himself, that is why these laws are called CO-mandments, and are the laws for Justice, Peace and Love of neighbor.
December 17, 2011 at 1:36 pm
@Anonymous 9:21 "the "religious" are accused of ramming religion down the "seculars" throats." The "religious" have a right to be free in their religion as inscribed in the First Amendment as long as the "religious" are responding to the gift of Fith from God, and not to some "secular" way which invariably leads to chaos unless the "secular" way is toward the one True God, for even in our Judicial branch of govenment all persons must SWEAR AN OATH "to tell the TRUTH, the whole TRUTH, and NOTHING but the TRUTH, so help me God". So, if the "secular" brings us to God and TRUTH, "secular" and "religious" may be seen as the lion and the lamb who will lay down together.
December 17, 2011 at 1:37 pm
FAITH
December 17, 2011 at 1:44 pm
For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon His shoulders dominion rests.
They name Him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over His kingdom, which He confirms and sustains by judgment and Justice, both now and forever.1 IS.9
Not by appearance shall He judge, nor by hearsay shall He decide.
Justice shall be the band around His waist.
Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a child to guide them.
The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain. 2 Is.11 MERRY CHRISTMAS
December 17, 2011 at 2:02 pm
In America, the lion truly misses the LAMB. The BABE and THE CHILD are forbidden in our "secular" places. (for "secular" read "Godless" also read "freedomless"). Your place and my place, given to us by God, Himself, is arrogated and abrogated by the devil. Our beloved secular nation has been devastated by evil.
December 17, 2011 at 2:36 pm
I think you guys miss my point. The idea of secularism is a lie. The secularists are at least as religious as the most devout Catholic, they simply worship the laws of ruling humans instead of the law of God. They illogically embrace the absolute idea of righteousness, they simply want to re-define it (homosexual superiority, eco-centrism, "animals are people too", "child rights", egalitariansim, endless warfare, the subservience of the individual to the collective) to suit Anti-Christian principles. Compound that with the "secular" idea that because they call themselves "secular" their philosophies are therefore scientific and logical and not based on "superstition" and are therefore THE BASIC philosophy that EVERYONE must EMBRACE and apply any other "religious" beliefs/values only where they do not conflict with the basic "secular" religion. John Dewey, widely acclaimed as a "father" of public schooling, widely wrote of the need to convert the population from Christianity to a socialist religion in the government schools so they would be obedient servants of the managed collective and this has been accomplished. Another of his pet projects was the creation of an uneducated class that would not balk at submitting to the requirements of the new social order, he bemoaned the "reading fetish" that existed among the highly literate population at the time. He instituted changes to dumb down children and making learning to read difficult (instituting "look-say" reading techniques instead of teaching kids the phonetical code).
1 Samuel 8:
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you…….
December 18, 2011 at 1:35 am
Why do secularists want to dominate rational souls, who they say do not exist? When our Creator creates an immortal soul, (from the Declaration of Independence) this soul is a rational person. Animals have no rational soul. Secularists ought to go be a swineherd or a goatherd, not president of the United States. Animals without a rational soul actually need to be herded. John Dewey underestimated people. People have common sense not gained from public school. In public school people learn how to compute their tax bill and maybe fly to the moon. Einstein could not tie his shoelaces but he knew enough to get out of Hitler's Germany. The whole idea of tyranny reeks of… what was Hitler called? The Madman. Obama, John Dewey, all tyrants are concerned with power, lust for power, greed for power. A lot of good it will do them when they are no longer alive or in heaven.
December 18, 2011 at 1:50 am
Obama, a follower of Saul Alinsky, is looking forward to going to hell, as his mentor, Alinsky, asked God to send him to hell, dedicated his book to Satan, and taught it to his willing student, Obama. Obama learned it very well. Alinsky's philosophy, if one wants to call it a philosophy was: "Take as much as you can, as fast as you can" complete with flow charts. Obama was Alinsky's star pupil. Obama taught Alinsky's principles when Obama graduated. Obama always assumed that the "take as much as you can" would be from other rational souls, everything else is work.
December 18, 2011 at 2:06 am
"Compound that with the "secular" idea that because they call themselves "secular" their philosophies are therefore scientific and logical and not based on "superstition" and are therefore THE BASIC philosophy that EVERYONE must EMBRACE and apply any other "religious" beliefs/values only where they do not conflict with the basic "secular" religion." My rational, immortal soul is a superstition endowed, created and held by God. Are "secular" souls created by God and are "secular" souls immortal? or is it only Catholic souls who are immortal and destined to eternal life? Are Catholic souls the only immortal souls endowed with unalienable rights? Then let us not share until the secularists come around to saying: "THANK GOD"
December 18, 2011 at 1:08 pm
@Anonymous 9:36 AM The atheist denies that God is. Liar. The secularist/atheist denies that man has an immortal soul with the dignity of the sacred person, a child of God. Liars. The government uses tax dollars to pay for any civil rights lawsuit. The atheist/ secularist have overpowered our founding principles in a court of law, using our own God-given freedoms to impose tyranny.
Persons are fighting a defensive war. Truth must go on the offensive, using the same tactics the atheist uses, especially the tax paid for lawsuits.
Time is come, with the denial of our consciences to look to our founding principles of the U.S. Constitution, “or prohibit the free exercise thereof”. Hands off my conscience,… my Life, my Liberty, my destiny, my property. Keep the laws inscribed in our Constitution. Congress makes laws, not the President. After Obamacare, and Rural Councils, Executive Order 13575, The next Executive Order will be YOU ARE ALL MY SLAVES, YOU ARE ALL PROPERTY OF THE STATE. Nobody, but nobody, can argue with an Executive Order. Right? Obama lets us keep our own property. It is past time to let Obama know that the President of the United States represents all citizens, all free men, and FREEDOM.
December 18, 2011 at 4:06 pm
Not knowing what else to write, God sent this obituary of Vaclav Havel from AP: "Vaclav Havel was leading the charge to peacefully bring down communism in a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan" and proving the power of the people to overcome totalitarian rule.
"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," (Read:“We cannot afford these people. They must be aborted-Pelosi) Havel famously said. It became his revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.
Born Oct. 5, 1936, in Prague, the child of a wealthy family who lost extensive property to communist nationalization [{(Read: Executive Order 13575 Rural Councils to nationalize extensive private property)]}
"Out of gifted and sovereign people, the regime made us little screws in a monstrously big, rattling and stinking machine." (Read: Obamacare)
His watchwords — "what the heart thinks, the tongue speaks”— had to be modified for day-to-day politics.
Havel's attempts …for political leaders to build a "civic society" based on respect, tolerance and individual responsibility went largely unanswered.
Havel was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and collected dozens of other accolades worldwide for his efforts as a global ambassador of conscience, (A GLOBAL AMBASSADOR OF CONSCIENCE) defended the downtrodden from Darfur to Myanmar.
"We should not turn a blind eye … It's a big test for the West," he said.
Havel also said he saw the global and European economic crisis as a warning not to abandon basic human values in the scramble to prosper.
"It's a warning against the idea that we understand the world, that we know how everything works,"
December 18, 2011 at 5:30 pm
“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” – GK Chesterton, Christendom in Dublin, 1933
I think a lot of people miss this point. However, I also think that Alinsky-followers count on this point and exploit it as much as they can.
~Gabrielle Syme
December 19, 2011 at 12:51 am
@Gabrielle Syme: "Only God is good" Jesus Christ
December 19, 2011 at 12:51 am
@Gabrielle Syme: "Only God is good" Jesus Christ