From the President's speech:
"In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character - on integrity, and tolerance toward others, and the rule of conscience in our own lives. Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before - ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and forever."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050120-1.html
....... I wish I could have an hour with the President to really know what he meant here. I think the statement he made is inaccurate about the Koran.
"sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran"
The phrase "sustained in our national life" is where most of us here are in disagreement with him.
A rhetorical question: If one were to be in a court of law attempting to settle a matter dealing with divorce, child custody, etc, what kind of court would one prefer to have the issue settled? An American court influenced by the teachings of Jesus Christ or in an Islamic court under the Sharia law of the Koran?
Before you give your answer, recall that it was Jesus Christ in his life on earth who:
(1) Refused to condone the stoning of a woman caught in adultery.
(2) Taught his disciples the parable of the "wheat and the weeds". Remember that the farm laborers wanted to pull up the weeds before the harvest on their own. The landowner said, no, we will wait until after the harvest and then do the separation of the good from the bad. The point of that story was to allow God to exercise the judgment, to give God the priority, not men. (I am not discounting the necessity of law and order, here, though.)
(3) It was Jesus who separated civil (governmental) issues from spiritual issues when He taught to "render unto God what is God's, and to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's". This teaching came about in the context of paying taxes to an evil king - to Caesar. Jesus divided the two kingdoms.
(4) It was Jesus who said that "My kingdom is not of this world", thus making clear the idea that building an earthly kingdom is vanity.
Going back to my question about law courts in America: the teachings of Jesus Christ have formed our justice system, and the teachings of the Koran have not.
I do NOT want the Koran influencing our legal system, do you? I do NOT want the Koran being used as an inspiration for writing new laws, do you?
On the other hand, why do so many Muslims want to live in America? - Because there is no religious freedom in many Muslim countries. By the way, I am not a person who believes that Christianity should be the official religion of America. I abhor the idea of a state religion - I want to be able to choose my own church.
I also want Muslims to be able to choose their own mosque. Ironically, in a Koranic country, that is not possible. Only in a country influenced by the teachings of Jesus Christ is that possible. THIS is the great irony, and this is the point I have not had time to make til now.
Thanks.
Thanks, fish, for all your efforts on this.
It is a very bad day when the Koran is mentioned in a President's inaugural speech. Has this ever happened before? I think not.
By doing so, it has given equal footing to the basic beliefs of the Koran, which we all know to be very dangerous beliefs and include the killing of infidels.
Anyone who thinks there is no harm done by including the Koran in the President's speech is only deceiving himself.
I voted for President Bush and was thrilled that he was there instead of Kerry. But I was greatly disappointed and even shocked at his mentioning the Koran in his speech.
Before I give you my answer, allow me to tell you what I was doing when I received your message. I was preparing a short pulpit speech I will give this Sunday inviting the men of our parish to attend an ACTS Retreat. My definition of the retreat is "it is an opportunity for members of our parish and nearby churches, through reflections on God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to grow in their love for God, and, following the example set by Jesus in the washing of the feet, respond to God’s call to love and serve one another."
So, my goodness, yes, I would much rather have my issues settled by an American court influenced by Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
But that is not the issue here. Did you read the James Woolsey speech for which I included a link in post 309? As he says, there are horrible groups in the Mid-East that are our sworn enemies: Middle East Fascists and Islamist totalitarians that are beyond redemption and with whom we will never be able to co-exist. But there are also hundreds of millions of good and decent Muslems who believe in the separation of Mosque and State and with whom we can make common cause. There are many examples throughout history of Muslem ruled countrys where freedom of religion was allowed. Not that I would ever want to live in such a country.
I have enough confidence in President Bush to believe that he would be able to distinguish between these different groups. I think he included a reference to the Koran in his speech to let good and decent Moslems know we are willing to work with them to bring about free countrys in the Middle East.
We cannot be at war with all Moslems. It didn't work during the Crusades and it won't work now.