Religious Freedoms Might be Going, Going, Gone

August 21, 2003 | Rick J. Radecki

[LasVegasMac]

I feel bad for your having to mumble angrily to yourself. Very well, I'll play. Prove you can see. I say that if you do at all, it's through a glass darkly.

Now ya did it.

No more mumbling to yourself, angrily.

Mumbling to yourself - happily - is authorized.

And take those glassly darks off, or is it dark glasses?, or just dark outside when you look through glass?.

LVM

[Eala]

voices “crying in the wilderness” of a culture gone astray

IMHO you've nailed it dead on with that point. The culture has gone astray -- and it's not just American culture but pretty much the entirety of Western civilization.

[gcruse]

There's an Elmer Gantry for every generation. And we're still here.

[Humidston]

No sir, it has nothing to do with Elmer Gantry, James Dobson, or anyone else presently living.

It has everything to do with WHERE OUR LIBERTIES ARE DERIVED. You know.... all that silly feel-good "God-given rights" stuff.

"Under God"
"So help me God"
"In God we trust"

There are more but I wouldn't want to bore you with an extensive list.

[gcruse]

Yes, it has to do with Elmer Gantry and every other gloom and doomer who thinks that getting his particular brand of religion out of government is somehow the end of civilization as we know it. Blending in government with God is the most insidious means of population control there is. At least atheistic communism didn't pretend to govern by divine right.

[Eala]

Gentlemen, "You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!!!"

IMSVHO (.."So Very"..) I think you're both pretty much right. And maybe, or maybe not, a little wrong.

But is there always an Elmer Gantry? Well, maybe... But let me play the pessimist for a moment. Civilizations have gone by the wayside before. Why should this one be any different? Especially as those who've lived through much of the existence of this one would be appalled at what they would see rampant in the West today.

Little things like (in the US) the consecration of a divorced and openly-practicing homosexual as an Episcopal bishop; I remember a time when such would have been quite unthinkable... A time when divorce was an act of desperation and not the (mathematically) expected outcome.

And elsewhere... the reports of "involuntary euthanasia" practised by the doctors of that once sturdy, stalwart Christian nation of Holland (the Netherlands), for example. And beyond that, there is much too much to drag into a short posting. For starters, the standards of honesty and conduct exhibited by recent (US) presidents and supreme court justices.

Please tell me, persuade me, nay, convince me I am wrong, and all is right with the world.

[c-b 1]

I think we should organize a movement to impeach the eight judges.

That would be a good place to start.

[TheGrimReaper]

If I may paraphrase the 20th Century genius philosopher, Karl Marx:
Remove all references to God from the public discourse, and the masses will have no choice but to rely more completely upon The State. (Communist Manifesto)

Looks to me like the US judiciary has jumped in with both feet to breathe more life into the Commie agenda.

Or, simply put (based on recent court decisions):
SODOMY - GOOD
Ten Commandments - BAD.

[LiteKeeper]

I am a retired Army officer (artillery, MI, and chaplain). I have the privilege of teaching several classes in Colorado Springs to high school, college, and adults on comparative worldviews (biblical vs secular). As I read the various threads, some impress me as good for illustrating different worldviews. So, using some Army terminology, I mark "incidents" as "SPOTREPS" (spot report) and "descriptions of the current world scene" as "SITREPs" (situation reports). INTREP (Intelliegence Report) provides information of an event involving those of the "opposition;" INTSUM (Intelligence Summary) provides more general information. When I get home, I download these SPOTREPs and SITREPs to a database for future use.

Does that help?