Sorry, I missed your post earlier!
Try not to be frightened, although I understand exactly how you feel. Remember the old line if it helps — “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself”. It’s a VERY true statement.
God doesn’t want us to be fearful. He wants us to stand firm and tall, and if you pray and ask for his help and guidance in these things he WILL be there for you, even in the midst of the WORST things you can possibly imagine... Put your faith and trust in the Lord, and seek Him out whenever you start to worry or be afraid. Even just taking a few seconds to quickly pray a silent prayer requesting the assistance of Heaven’s Host of Angels can help tremendously I’ve found.
I think your plan to tell them that you are loyal to God and Jesus alone, or as you said for our Jewish Freepers God alone, (or for our Pagan Freepers - whatever god you have pledged you life to, for our Atheist Freepers perhaps something along the lines of refusing to pledge unquestioning loyalty to any man, etc... etc...) is a VERY good one... It will allow you to publicly affirm your faith as well as send a clear message that there are those of us that will NOT blindly follow them.
As you said, perhaps it will make them think for a moment and consider what they are really asking us to do by signing these oaths. I’ll be praying that God will use this opportunity to open some of their eyes.
Keep your head up — no matter what happens we have the Lord’s promise that WE WILL PREVAIL in the end! We are under His wing, and with God ANYTHING is possible!
May God bless you & yours Livius, and may He protect you from all harm. - LR
Just after I finished my post to you my favorite praise song of all time started wafting through my head. I’m a singer, so for me singing also helps dispel my fears...
I wanted to share with you the following hymn. It always hits me square in the heart, and gives me courage...
(Apologies to those Catholics who may be sick to death of hearing this song, and who by merely seeing these lyrics may give you an “ear worm”! LOL I don’t know if this is still a common hymn for mass or not, but we must have sang this a million times when I was growing up!)
If you’ve never heard the song itself, I did find a decent version on YouTube which you can hear here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBH-Eh9Bjjg&feature=related
~ Be Not Afraid Lyrics ~
You shall cross the barren desert,
but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety,
though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands,
and all will understand,
You shall see the face of God and live.
Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
and I shall give you rest.
If you pass through raging waters
in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amidst the burning flames,
you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow’r of hell
and death is at your side,
know that I am with you, through it all
Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
and I shall give you rest.
Blessed are your poor,
for the Kingdom shall be theirs.
Blest are you that weep and mourn,
for one day you shall laugh.
And if wicked men insult and hate you, all because of Me,
blessed, blessed are you!
Be not afraid,
I go before you always,
Come follow Me,
and I shall give you rest.
Also, if someone tries to get us to sign a pledge, we must take all the time in the world to read the whole thing - very, very slowly - and ask all sorts of questions. Most people don't like the task of going door to door and want the task to go quickly - they hope they'll get a signature quickly and won't have the face to face last more than a minute. So stall them for a long period of time.
Just another tactic that might work.