However, I shall not take your pledge at post 4 - my life is already pledged to Jesus Christ alone, He is my sacred honor - I have none of my own, nor do want any.
Also I am not pleased with the emphasis at post 134 on the socialist roots of the authors of the Pledge of Allegiance.
The meaning and power is in the words not the history of it.
Christmas and Easter both can be traced to pagan roots – but that is not remembered when the assembly gathers to honor what Christ has done for us. Again, the meaning is in what we derive from the moment – not the origin of the custom.
Because the political revelation is already raising alarms in my Spirit, please remove my name from your ping list.
I am suprised that you feel that way. No one would disparage allegiance to a country that is doing "right" and living within the Constitution. Socialism is diametrically opposed to the Constitution and clearly not right or Constitutional. The intent of the post was to challenge the concept of allegiance to a Country, regardless of right or wrong. Our history and the writings of the Founders and the writings of those who drafted the Constitution clearly challenged future Americans to beware of the tendency of government to escape its Constitutional shackles and charged us with a duty to rein it back within the Constitution for the benefit of those who come after us.
" However, I shall not take your pledge at post 4 - my life is already pledged to Jesus Christ alone, He is my sacred honor - I have none of my own, nor do want any."
No one could fault such an elegant statement or such a noble committment.
"Because the political revelation is already raising alarms in my Spirit, please remove my name from your ping list.
I will of course comply with your wishes if you renew your request, but before doing so, I would like to ask what could possibly cause you alarm or anxiety about seeking to elect a group of legislators committed to bringing the federal government back within its Consitutional restraints in order to restore the freedoms that government has usurped from the people of the United States. Quite honestly, your request forces me to ask if you can see the paradox between such a request and a screen name that includes what may be history's greatest and noblest example of men freely sacrificing and laying down their lives so that the rest of us can have the benefits of freedom.
I have lived most of my adult life in Texas and now live less than 150 miles from the Alamo. I have been to Washington and seen all the historic buildings and memorials of this once great nation. Because of their need for restoration, it took three visits to actually gain access and see the Constitution and the Declaration. The Bible is not the work of man, but the Declaration and the Constitution are the two most important documents ever conceived by the mind of man.
I have had the privilege and opportunity to see the Grand Canyon and most of our national parks including our historic battlegrounds and our cemeteries. I shed my share of tears at The Wall. I have seen the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard. The one thing of America's history that I would most like to see is the Alamo. I have been there three times. I have never been able to go inside. Each time I have been overcome by the emotions that have welled up inside over their freely given sacrifice. They made this sacrifice with no reasonable assurance of success. A strong case could in fact be made that they should have run away so that such men could live to fight another day. If hope or the expectation of a delay of a few days of time would increase the chance that others would find a way to victory was the reason for their sacrifice, those men were knowledgable enough to know that they could have escaped and harrassed Santa Anna's forces in skirmishes that would have tied him up longer than the siege lasted. No, these men laid down their lives as a challenge that was designed to inspire other Texans that they dare not fail to successfully defend freedom.
I find your request unfathomable. If it were not for the instrumental role you played in the impeachment of Clinton with the yeoman's task of tabulating the Clinton Chronicles and if I did not believe that for some reason you are confused about the nature of this project, I would be inclined to find either your request or your chosen screen name very much in conflict regarding the nature of this undertaking.