Saturday, November 03, 2007

I'd like to send this guy back to a special place




Let me first say that racism wrapped up in a shiny bow that you call "love" is still racism, just like beating a child you love is still abuse and raping a woman you love is still rape.

Wonder and I have had these long conversations about our differing views on religion.I think this video, more than anything else confirms my disbelief. I cannot believe in a god who would create the entire world and then pit his creations against one another by allowing them to draw arbitrary borders around themselves. I cannot believe in a god who would chose sides between two waring religious armies while mothers and daughters are raped and families murdered to win the war.

I don't believe that America is god's chosen land. I think a lot of work went into our founding fathers' decisions to make this a secular democracy for a reason. They came from England, a country that had almost 100 years of religious division between Catholics and Protestants and they understood how a simple change in leaders could turn a previously favored religion into a persecuted one. So they left god out of it on purpose.

I wonder how the people who think that this is a Christian nation would feel if the tide turned and we became a nation built on the beliefs of the Jehovah's Witnesses. It would be a country without Christmas or birthday celebrations. Organized sports would be canceled- no World Series, no Superbowl, no Nascar and no cheerleaders (athletes receive praise for their accomplishments that should be going to god and turn themselves into false idols and cheerleaders are worshiping false idols by giving glory to the sports players rather than to god).

If we allow ourselves to be a Christian nation, then we also allow for the possibility of those ideas being overturned by another religion. It is only through secularism that the beliefs of ALL religions are safe from harm. The founding fathers knew this.

We are not a Christian nation and Christians of all denominations should rejoice in that fact. You are free to worship or not worship however you see fit. You will not be punished for being Baptist when Catholics are in power and vice versa. You will not be killed or have your children taken from you for your beliefs. But with that freedom comes the restriction that you cannot harm another person for believing something different from you.

If you believe this is a Christian nation then I ask you to think about what happens when all the non-Christians are removed from society. The power struggles then happen between denominations. Maybe first everyone gangs up on Mormons, they're not really Christian anyways. Then maybe all the Catholics get taken out by the various Protestant denominations. Then the Baptists start taking out the Methodists and Episcopalians. There is no end because there is no one true Christian faction.

For those of us who don't believe, it doesn't matter which religious faction is in charge once the secular line is broken. But for those of you who are Christians, you might want to fight with us non-believers to keep politics and religion separate. Without that secular line in place you do not know what kind of religion you will be forced to follow, even if your heart and beliefs tell you that it is wrong.

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