CHURCH AND STATE

There are some who are saying it was wrong to celebrate Ramadan in the White House. There are some who say it is wrong to celebrate Christmas in the White House.

Here’s my thought …

The separation of church and state was not set up to protect the churches from the government, it was actually set up to prevent the churches from becoming the government.

The founding Fathers had seen the damage done over the centuries with the usurping of Rome, by the Roman Church; and desired for this never to happen again. This led to witch hunts, the Inquisition, the Dark Ages, etc. Basically, a horrid time for humanity.

As a citizen, you have the right to practice whatever religion you so choose. As a government, we must be tolerant and accepting of all religious affiliation represented here in this country. This also must not violate our human rights as citizens of the USA, and the Earth.

However, when the government gets involved in ANY religion, there begins a path of favoritism. It kind of reminds me of a grade school teacher saying “well Bobby, if I let you do it, then I have to let everyone else do it.”

America is NOT a Christian Nation. We are a FREE nation. “Under God” if you believe this way, and sans the clause of you do not. It was never established as such, and our Founding Fathers would find it appalling to say so. This is favoritism and entitlement, NOT freedom. At the very most they were Deists … believing is a much different spiritual path than what modern religions have become. The fact that a great number of American residents are professed Christians, does not make this country a Christian Nation from an endorsement point of view, or a governmental point of view.

People are upset that our Service Members have to adhere to clothing and other specific requirements when entering a “Muslim Nation.” This is because the nation itself through it’s governing body is an entirety of like-believers and if you don’t like it, then too bad for you. These are their ways and if you do not like their ways, then move on. Not a bad thing, it just IS. The same goes for many other countries.

America says, go ahead and wear your traditional religious attire, or not. America says, kneel at your cross, or don’t. America says, pray to your god, or don’t. This is a grocery store and department store nation. Everything is on display, and you can buy and take home what you want. If you don’t like some of the things we offer, someone else will. We still carry the products, we still offer the choices.

It is remarkable to me when I go into the Target store here where I live that I can see people from all over the world, dressed is a myriad of different traditional clothes, believing in an immeasurable variety of thought … yet we walk together. We breathe the same air. We use the same gravity. And if one of us falls down on the sidewalk, we help. We do not first ask if they are a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, and Atheist, or anything else. Our Inner Teacher recognizes that we are all ONE in Humanity, regardless of where we are from or what we believe.

Bottom line, our government should not be concerning itself with religious celebrations at all. Let each person celebrate that holiday that he deems important in his life, and let the government do what it is suppose to do.

This means a total SEPARATION of church and state. Stop connecting the government with ANY religion, and you stop connecting it with ALL religion.

Yeah I know, you’ll say we took God of out the schools and look what happened. We took God out of our Senate and Congress and look what happened. This is a very poor excuse, and I can sum it up in one paragraph.

If you believe in God, then you believe that God is Omnipotent (All-powerful), Omniscient (All-knowing), and Omnipresent (All-present). If you in fact DO believe this to be true, then there is no room for satan, the anti-christ, or anything else OTHER than God. You see because by the admittance that you believe God to be everywhere, then there is NO place, or NO thing, that God is NOT. All is God and God is all. This is not exclusive to a Christian, Judaic, or Islamic God … this is simply the understanding that the very force of life from a cellular level to a thought level … is divine. You simply have not yet accepted that the Divine, God, or any other name specific deity is experiencing a physical world through us, with us, AS US.

Just a thought ...

Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.