Posted on 05/22/2005 3:27:37 PM PDT by quidnunc
In his article "Political pulpit – The Bible as weapon in the culture war," John Shelby Spong is critical of those Christians who are trying to influence government according to their convictions (Perspective, May 15).
Spong writes, "When leaders seek to intimidate the presumably independent courts, the first step toward totalitarian government has been taken," and then he reiterates the charge that conservative Christians "seek to impose their religious agenda on the whole body politic."
What Spong fails to point out is that the liberal left also seeks to impose its agenda on the rest of us. The three examples he gives — same-sex marriage, abortion and the Terri Schiavo case — all point to a conflict of opinions, and no matter which side one takes, somebody is imposing his morality on someone else.
If same-sex marriage became law, the definition of marriage would be changed for all of us.
It would affect adoption laws and certainly the entire school system. Already, a father here in Chicago asked me recently how he should handle a situation in which his 6-year-old daughter is expected to watch a film that defines a family as any combination of adults: two men, two women, etc. So who is seeking to impose his morality on whom?
Ominously, on Jan. 11, both the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate amended the Illinois Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation as a protected class. Two weeks later, Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed it into law.
This law makes no exemption for churches and other religious institutions. Sen. Carol Ronen, the sponsor of the bill, is on record saying that the new law applied to churches: "If that is their goal, to discriminate against gay people, this law won't allow them to do that. …"
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Good read!
Thanks for posting!
Throw the bumbs out.
The words "left" and "morality" don't belong in the same sentence.
How? The "left" doesn't have any...
Everyone is entitled to their 'deeply held beliefs' except Christians. If PETA wanted to discriminate against a meat eater, no one would bat an eye. Every group except Christians is allowed to foist their beliefs on others, but Christians not even allowed their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion. I thing this law may be unconstitutional.
bump
Not only do I thinK ;) it is unconstitutional, I would venture to say it IS unconstitutional, no matter what your definition of "is" is.
If this is about tax exempt status, then it is time for the REAL churches to step up to the plate and revoke their exempt status. Do without some things, but preach the Gospel of Christ. There are way too many organizations that call themselves "churches" that have nothing to do with religion or God. They seek only to evade taxes while promoting their pseudo "religion" which is nothing more than their own vain ideologies and political agendas.
/Rant off
The fact that we still have a "school system" is indicative of the socialist inroads into our republic.
I could travel down the highway in a semi and shovel billions of dollars out the back of a trailer and have the same effect on education we see today from Washington D.C. The difference is: I'd be enriching someone elses' life, rather than the parasites who suit-up, carry brief cases, and lobby for the least productive monopoly that has ever existed.
Public education is not only dumbdown, it's just plain Soviet. Like gungrabbers, these parasites wish to brain-grab your children. Screw these braingrabbers and the socialist horse they rode in on.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. IIRC Spong wrote a book several years ago in which he stated that St. Paul was a homosexual.
Spong is wrong. If he had his way, Christians would not only have to practice their faith in a closet, they would have to live in one. My faith defines me and what I believe and I have a duty, both as an American, and as a Christian, to speak out and try to repair the damage the amoral left has done to this country.
By Retired Episcopalian Bishop JOHN SHELBY SPONG - Taken from
Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism
". . .This is the way my thesis would suggest that the gospel of Jesus Christ was experienced by Paul, the man from Tarsus. To me it is a beautiful idea that a homosexual male, scorned then as well as now, living with both the self-judgment and the social judgments that a fearful society has so often unknowingly pronounced upon the very being of some it its citizens, could nonetheless, not in spite of this but because of this, be the one who would define grace for Christian people."
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