RESPONSES to One Nation
under God
A column by Keith
Drury
I
think a nation under God would care about people and would use all available
resources to make the world a better place. Fair wage laws, health care for
all, educational opportunities, foreign aid, environmental stewardship and
other similar issues would be priorities. The type of nation described in this
article is exactly what many evangelical fundamentalists would love to impose
on our country, with no separation of church and state. Former president Jimmy
Carter recently published a book titled "Our Endangered Values", a
great read, especially for Christians who are interested in these very issues.
Interesting!
Could there be coming a convergence of fundamentalism--so that in the future
Christian fundamentalists and the Moslem fundamentalists will link up to
together bring the social change they seem to agreed
on?
Boy that would be a curious marriage of convenience!
"What
luck for the rulers that men do not think!"
-Adolf Hitler
Great
idea Keith! Actually, why not make it illegal not to be a Christian too.
Surely, one of the most important issues would be conformity of beliefs. We
would have to extrapolate additional laws from Biblical principals to deal with
things that aren't specifically mentioned in the Bible but that wouldn't be too
hard for those in charge. And, of course, with all the conformity, there's
really very little need for free will because everybody knows what is right and
what is wrong. There really wouldn't be much in the way of decisions for people
to make. Actually, doing this would make last week's blog unimportant. That
would be legislated too. Great idea! But I was wondering. Who's in charge?
P.S.
I have a friend named Jim Jones who is looking for a ministry. I could give him
your number.
One
nation under God doesen't bring
about true and lasting morality. The Jews and the Catholics have both had a go
at it in history and it just doesen't work. If
someone is going to live a righteous life God has to change their heart and it
won't matter how much opposition. In fact I think it's arguable that the less
"under God" a nation is the stronger the christians in it are.
I
think the basic premise of American christianity
is flawed. America was based on fleeing persecution. The idea being that it shoulden't have to cost me to follow
Christ. I think many of the problems in the american church are a result of that thought being
carried to the Nth.
You've
just identified why "American" democracy will not work in Islamic
countries. For muslims,
there can be no separation of mosque and state, much like Christendom post
Constantine. My gut feeling tells me that "Christian" nations rarely
achieve their stated purposes, a fact even supported by history. When
Christians get into power, the entire means of effectiveness for what it means
to be a Christian changes. Instead of trying to be a eucharistic community committed to orthodoxy and orthopraxi, you wind up with people who will compromise
Christian beliefs and ethics in order to preserve the power structure. Let the
Church be the Church and the world be the world.