God...not G-d

[grumple]

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayton asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?" In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school ... the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK. Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK. Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.

Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK. And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.

Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!

[Dave Elias]

Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay are more modern names for the letters, and are thus don't really give us a correct pronounciation as it originally appeared. It is generally reckoned that the letters Yod-Hay-Vav-Hay are not direct substitutes for the original Yud-Hey-Waw-Hey in terms of diction.

[zook]

If it really was a 3000 year old tradition *widespread* practice in English, then I would have encountered it sometime during my 50 years on this earth prior to the last couple of years.

[E Rocc]

Until we begin agreeing, as a nation, what the standard is, you will have a hard time selling personal responsibility.

Not really. There's a pretty big range between "don't kill" and "don't steal" to "don't have sex in non-permitted manners" or "don't smoke those leaves". "Don't intentionally harm others or put them at risk" is something just about all of us can agree on, and indeed something no nation can survive without.

This country was founded on the principles and morals of the Christian Bible.

Then why doesn't the Constitution say that? Why does it protect the right to violate at least three of the Ten Commandments?

If anyone wants to question that part of American Culture they need to find a country where the President doesn't take his oath of office on the Christian Bible.

Did you know the President is not even legally required to add "so help me, God" at the end, let alone use the Bible? Both are tradition, not law.

Until we declare from the rooftops, this is a Christian society based on scriptural principles, if you want to live in our nation abide by these standards.

We are a free nation that consists of several "societies". The reason these societies co-exist in peace is because religious matters were placed outside the domain of government, and none of these societies can pass laws forcing the others to live according to their beliefs.

Christian principles were only one of the building blocks of our nation. English common law was equally important. Yet as Jefferson observed, the common law predated Christianity in England.

What do we think the Constitution and our Declaration of Independence are all about anyway?

The Declaration was written by a man who did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. The Constitution nowhere mentions any deity, or the Bible, except when it uses the normal dating convention of the era.

-Eric

[zook]

What I thought we were referring to is the practice of writing "God" this way in modern English text. What was done 2000 years ago isn't relevant to the question of why it is I, as a reasonably well read person, did not encounter this practice until quite recently. I grabbed the term "new age" in a generic sense, meaning a desire to return to and restore some ancient understanding.

[zook]

"New age" in the sense of "romantic," that is, a desire to return to or restore some belief, philosophy, feeling, or practice from antiquity.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[E Rocc]

That is absolutely true of course, but the question is: do we have the strength of character to respond to this current crisis w/ the same resolve that we had when confronted by WWII?

IMO we did a better job of responding to the crisis of Soviet expansionism than we did to World War II...because we had the gumption to respond when the threat was not as well developed. The generation that staffed the 80s military (and voted for Reagan by a 2-1 margin in 1984), if they went to public schools, went to schools where religion was not taught but personal responsibility usually was.

Character and self-esteem are not the same thing.

Self-respect is justified self-esteem. We agree there.

-Eric

[adam_az]

If it really was a 3000 year old tradition *widespread* practice in English, then I would have encountered it sometime during my 50 years on this earth prior to the last couple of years.

Not 3000 years in English, since the language is not that old, but in other languages, yes, and the tradition has been brought forward into use in other languages.

I can't explain why you've only encountered it for the last few years. I can tell you I've seen it since childhood for the last nearly 30 years, but then, I'm Jewish. If you don't spend aany time reading Jewish religious literature (which of course most Goyim do not, much as I don't spend time following Hindu or Catholic literature) then you probably wouldn't encounter it in 50 years or 500 years.

[bondserv]

You are correct Judeo-Christian with a Christian leaning.

Part of America's success has been because we have blessed the Jews. Christians try to reach out to all people just as Jesus did, and Jesus was the first Jew to become a Christian.

[aculeus]

How about "-od" or "Go-" or even the mystically symmetrical "-o-"?

Just for variety.

[E Rocc]

So, you think God will punish those who write His whole name? A Jewish friend of mine complaints that rabinical law exhorts Jews to open both ends of a can to avoid making a vessel. Do you reckon these two things are equivalent?

I'd reckon this would make it tough for Israel to have a Navy. >:o

-Eric

[Catspaw]

Here are the words of George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island:

[Address to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island]

[Newport, R.I., 18 August 1790]

Gentlemen.

While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens.

The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and a happy people.

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

Go: Washington

---

Notes:

1. See Washington to the Clergy of Newport, R.I., 18 Aug. 1790, note 2, in Papers, Presidential Series. vol. 6.

[fish hawk]

I've been in churches where they kneel to pray and some where they stand up and wave their hands in the air. Most just bow their heads and pray silently. The thing is they are all praying. My God doesn't care if you spell His name G_d or God. He is just happy that you know him. He gives us a great gift besides salvation, it's called volition.

[bondserv]

Begin your studies with the The American Colonist's Library

[adam_az]

"New age" in the sense of "romantic," that is, a desire to return to or restore some belief, philosophy, feeling, or practice from antiquity.

New Age is a term actually derived from occultism. As far as I can tell it stems from Crowley's use of the term "New Aeon" in reference to what he saw as the end of the Age of Osiris, and the beginning of the Age of Horus. He believed he recieved this message through a being called Aiwass which dictated to him "Liber Al vel Legis" while he sat inside the Great Pyramid in Egypt... a book which is poetically beautiful but rather strange. Supposedly the age was ushered in by a ritual performed by Jack Parsons, a chemist from Cal Tech who is the inventor of solid rocket fuel still used today, who took over a California lodge of the OTO. Even stranger, L. Ron Hubbard stole Parsons wife. Parsons blew himself up in an accidental lab accident, a fact which I'm sure will please many of Free Republics readers for whom Jack Chick is their personal hero.

Here is an interesting link: http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:GPko0DWsiOcJ:www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id592/pg1/+new+age+horus+crowned+and+conquering+child&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[bondserv]

George Washington was a model for us of Christian persuasion as opposed to Christian Bible thumpage.

For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

This line should be read at every imigration celebration of new citizenship and to our school children. Excellent post Catspaw! Thanks

[aruanan]

Many times lately I've seen the word God (on Free Republic) where some have forgotten how to spell it, like some aversion to it, as if they would be skewered by the Devil's pitchfork for spelling it out....I received this in e-mail and myself thought it was profound....

You're just unaware that many, mostly orthodox Jews, write it as G-d to show respect. I hope this will help you pull your foot out of your throat.

[dawn53]

Thanks for your response. It was very interesting and informative.

[aruanan]

Do you not think that if fully spelling-out "God" really pissed Him off that He would've lightning-struck somebody for it by now?

Revealing that you should think of the reason for not spelling it out in this fashion. But I guess it's consistent with your view of G-d.

[aruanan]

It's a remnant of the old belief that if you knew something's "true name" you could control it.

No, it's not; though that belief did exist, that's not the case here. You're engaging in the fallacy of the undistributed middle. That A is M and B is M doesn't mean that A is B.