I'll give you an example of my confusion. The thirteen colonies did not have a single religion. The Roman Catholics landed in Maryland, the Puritans landed in Massachusetts, and the Shakers lived where they wanted. Although each denomination had differences with each other, they fundamentally understood what is was like to be persecuted for their religious beliefs, which drove them to our great land. As our government was founded, no one said that we all had to abide by one religion; I doubt anyone would have been able on which religion to agree. So why is it now a problem that we have people in our government who might or might not be Muslim? Our country, founded on religious freedom, used to embrace everyone. Shouldn't we still? Who cares what religion our President, Vice President or Speaker of the House might be? We have had Roman Catholic presidents and the Pope did not come to invade us, although many feared he would. We have had Evangelical presidents and the Rev. Billy Graham did not raise an army against us. Why do we make this an issue?
Another source of confusion is abortion. Many believe that it is the killing of a child and I can understand from where they are coming. But choice is another principle on which our country was founded. This is not a dictatorial country that determines who can procreate and who can't. Our government does not limit the number of children we can have or decide that boy babies are superior to girl babies. Communist China does that. Our country gives us a choice. But many want to restrict that choice because choice means that a murder has occurred. A few religions have come out against abortion for moral reasons. Others, my own faith included, has determined that there is not specific text in the Bible that speaks expressly to abortion but advocate respect for the woman and child. If a person, after prayerfully considering all their options, chooses to have an abortion and God is displeased with that choice, God offers forgiveness. But some people on the campaign trail are for the elimination of abortion on moral grounds. To me, that sounds like a religion taking over the government and not the principles on which our country was founded. It also is narrow-minded and not representative of the people of this country.
Finally, I hear a lot about gay marriage, especially with the California Supreme court decision yesterday. Many people advocate strongly that marriage is between a man and a woman and there is biblical support for that. In fact, yesterday, some pundit went so far as to say the reason for marriage is for procreation. If that is the case, people who marry later in life would not be covered by the Constitution. But there is also biblical support for loving your neighbors as you love yourself and not judging others. More and more, there is evidence that gays and lesbians are created that way and, no matter what, are a creation of the same God who offers forgiveness. But again, our country is not founded on religion, and all people are protected under the same Constitution. No where in the Constitution does it stipulate that gays are not covered by the laws of this country. The Supreme Court will eventually decide what the Constitution says about gay marriage. But the important point here is that we, as a country, were not founded on the principle of excluding people because of their sexual orientation. We were not founded on any exclusionary principles, unless you were a slave, but we have corrected that issue supposedly.
So the question I ask is this. Why do we continue to allow people with exclusionary, religious agendas preach to us about returning to the founding principles of our country when they are no where close to what the founding principles are? Isn't it time to get the religion out of our politics and stick to the issues that "belong to Caesar?" Shouldn't we allow people their individual freedoms instead of allowing someone's religion to dictate our rights?
Did you know that the Pledge of Allegiance did not include the words "under God" until after World War 2?
