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.