GOD AND THE FEDS
Copyright © 2010, 2015, 2018, 2022 by Jim Hull
(Please cite the author if you quote from this work)
"If all the States
declare thankfulness to God in their preambles, then why is
this government trying to dismantle the name of God
from everything?"
There are
two good, ancient reasons why the Feds are kept out of religion,
and they're to protect YOU and avoid bloodshed. Here we go:
1. States are designed to have much more latitude in how
they approach religion. That way, if you despise what your state
is doing, you can move to another state that's more to your
liking. It's the genius of the American system. (Nowadays,
people in Washington, D.C. are trying to usurp those powers in
all areas, but at least that's the original principle.)
2. If, as many Christian groups dearly hope, the U.S.
government were to espouse religious words or principles, it
almost certainly would NOT select YOUR form of Christianity.
Eventually you'd be forced to pray, or bow down to, the WRONG
religion whenever you visited a government building, AND your
congregation would eventually be suppressed, taxed, etc. There
are over 30,000 varieties of Christian. What are the odds the
YOUR version will win out?
It was
precisely this kind of meddling by rulers that caused the deaths
of millions between 1500 and 1800 during religious wars in
Europe, and it's why the Founders were so afraid of government
interference in religious affairs.
The very
first words of the Bill of Rights are: "Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof . . . " It's that important! If the Feds
put, say, the Ten Commandments up on buildings, it's only a
matter of time before people are fighting in the streets over
which translation of the Commandments gets used, or which
religion gets to decide what other texts are promoted, and which
religion gets special treatment in the Halls of Congress or in
the courts, etc etc. (That would be the religion with the most
money and the most votes.)
The Founders
deliberately took the federal government out of the religion
business to protect ALL religions -- especially Christianity in
its many forms. (If you think nobody but you is truly Christian,
then that's all the more reason you DON'T want the government
taking sides, because your group will lose out to the wrong
people.) It's much safer for your congregation, and its chances
of converting others, if the federal government stays strictly
out of religion. Otherwise, you'd almost certainly be chafing in
rage at how the government would force you to worship. It
wouldn't be the way you'd want to do it.
Do you really
want, for example, Obama to be in charge of your religious
beliefs? For that matter, will there EVER be a president who
agrees with your particular congregation? Far safer, then, to
keep the government's nose out of the religion tent altogether.
"But it's
just the word 'God' on government preambles!" Sure, and once
anything falls under federal purview, it grows and expands until
it runs every aspect of that thing in America. If you start with
a simple, "We believe in God" statement emblazoned on all
federal buildings, it's merely a matter of time until the
religion that wins the next election can hang its own banners,
i.e., "We the People of the United States, under the Catholic
God . . . " or the next administration replaces it with "Y____H"
or (in candidate Jerry Brown's case) "Buddha" or . . . get ready
for it . . . "ALLAH" !!! And if the Birthers are right,
we'd be only a stone's throw away from that word printed on
everything federal.
Don't laugh:
remember, the entire Roman Empire, at Emperor Constantine's
insistence, changed its religion overnight in 312 A.D., and
suddenly everyone went from worshipping Jupiter to worshipping
Jesus. The Middle East became Muslim in a matter of decades
after 632 A.D., as warriors put populations to the sword if they
didn't convert. Confucianism swept across China immediately, by
government edict, in the second century B.C. And Communism
overthrew religion in a matter of a few years in Soviet Russia.
There's no reason it can't happen again, especially if the
central government has anything to say about it.
So be glad
the Feds -- who seem to screw up everything they touch -- are
prevented from making any kind of statement about religion on
government property. It wouldn't end up as YOUR choice of
religion. And literally millions could die before it got
fixed.
Your
congregation has vastly more power when the government is silent
than when the Feds take a stance. Don't throw away your
freedom of worship and hand it to a bureaucrat. It's that
important.
* * * *
UPDATE: What might happen if a Christian sect took over the
government? Here's
one possibility.
COMMENT: The brilliant and ever-interesting Leslie Burkhardt
offers her thoughts on faith
in the modern world. (You may have to sign in to Google.)
If you find any
part of this work quoted without credit to the author, please
let him know! Thank you.
jimhull@jimhull.com
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