HOUSE ASKS U.S. TO PRAY NON-STOP
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (03/30/07)
It's true. Congressional House members ask America to sign up for an ongoing intercession for the nation.
So much for separation of church and state. Check it out atheist and agnostic enthusiasts.
Rosie O’Donnell conveniently let loose with that phrase the other day on The View. She said something to the effect that we all know that in America "it’s separation of church and state." Flip flip, Rosie. Anything you say, girl.
She of course meant in America no religion allowed. Yet no one on the show corrected her defense of total secularism. Actually, no one had a ghost of a chance with the quick lip slip she inserted into another topic.
Separation of church and state means that the nation has no one denomination endorsed by the government. In England Anglicanism is that nation’s official denomination. No such creature in the US and never will be.
But in the US we do have a Judeo-Christian heritage. That must be kept intact while secularists threaten to pull it under. Holding to that heritage is not endorsing a denomination; it’s honoring our biblical tradition. Rosie has a lot to learn, of course.
Therefore, as in past tight situations, when America is near the cliff, leaders come to the citizenry appealing for prayers to the Almighty. America willingly responds for the grassroots has not given up on its faith in the God of the Bible.
Now per AP, "members of Congress have issued a bipartisan appeal for non-stop prayer.
"At a Capitol Hill news conference, Virginia Republican Randy Forbes urged Americans to commit to pray for the nation and its leaders for five minutes a week.
"North Carolina Democrat Mike McIntyre says a Web site -- www.prayercaucus.org -- will let people choose when they'll pray, with the hope of filling every time slot.
"House members quoted the Bible and declared their faith in God and need for prayer support.
"Forbes stressed that Americans of all faiths are being asked to pray without ceasing for the nation and its leaders."
Carry on America — on your knees.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE = FADING OUT
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..."
the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, which took effect Dec. 15, 1791
Per The Washington Times’ Joyce Howard Price "U.S. courts rule about two times each week on cases involving whether prayers can be included in a high school graduation ceremony, an image of Jesus Christ can be displayed in a public school or a Ten Commandments monument can remain in a government building or public park.
"The tide (against thwarting religious expression) started to turn in June 2005, when the Supreme Court ruled that a granite monolith on the grounds of the Texas state Capitol in Austin featuring the Ten Commandments -- along with Jewish and patriotic symbols -- did not violate the First Amendment's ban on an establishment of religion.
"Francis Manion, senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), says that with its 5-4 opinion in Van Orden v. Perry, the high court ‘did away with the idea that there is something constitutionally radioactive about the Ten Commandments.’
In a December 2005 ruling about a Kentucky courthouse's display of the Ten Commandments, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the phrase ‘separation of church and state is an ‘extra-constitutional construct ... [that] has grown tiresome.’ The court ruled that the display was allowed because it was ‘part of an otherwise secular exhibit.’"
Yet the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) continues to make headway in some areas.
"Those ACLU victories include the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lee v. Weisman, which struck down school-sponsored prayers at public-school graduation ceremonies.
"Another was the court's 2000 decision in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, which struck down a Texas school district's policy of permitting students to vote on selecting a classmate to lead prayers before football games.
"Since then, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a public-interest law firm that specializes in religious-liberty cases, has won ‘most of the Ten Commandments court cases’ in which it has participated, Mr. Manion says.
"Mr. Manion says it's ‘hard to believe that in a country where 80 [percent] to 90 percent of the people believe in God’ that the government forbids the acknowledgement ‘of the widespread nature of this belief.’"
"Separation of Church and State." Liberals have run off with this phrase, prostituting it per usual.
The matter is simple. It’s this: America does not want a state church. England has a state church — the Anglican Church. America does not want one denomination considered The Nation’s Church.
On the other hand, America has a religious heritage. It’s not Muslim. It’s not Hindu. It’s not Shinto. It’s not animism. It’s not New Age. It’s not Paganism. It’s not Voodoo. It’s Judeo-Christian.
America, while not desiring a state church, does desire religion in life. That includes religious expression in everyday exchange. Because Judeo-Christian is America’s heritage, most citizens honor that heritage expressed and honored. Its expression then should not be thwarted. It should not be belittled. It should not be erased in the name of "separation of church and state."
Unhampered religious expression is promised in the First Amendment.
Further, America, having a Judeo-Christian heritage and the right to present-tense expression, permits freedom of religious expression to other religions. Therefore, there are those of other religious persuasions who practice without fear their religions in America.
What the liberals want to do is redefine the phrase "separation of church and state" to exclude Judeo-Christian religious expression in America. They want not only "separation of church and state" defined on their terms but the exclusion of the Judeo-Christian religion and anything coming close to that particular religious expression—period.
Liberals believe that if they continue harping on the "separation of church and state" phrase, brainwashing the public with their prostituted definition, especially indoctrinating the next generation with their prostituted definition, then they will have won secularism for America’s future.
They, in other words, want not only separation but exclusion of religion — completely so. Note however that the chief religion they want excluded is Judeo-Christian.
They will even tolerate other religions, as they are presently doing with the Muslim infiltration, but it is Judeo-Christian that they want cleansed from America. In other words, it’s a religious cleansing they desire for this nation — the extinguishing specifically of the Judeo-Christian faith.
Therefore, if tolerating another religion such as Islam helps wipe out Judeo-Christianity, then so be it. Islam is far better a tolerance than the American heritage of Judeo-Christian. Therefore, there are school districts hiring Muslims to speak to teachers on how to give Muslim students honor and space. No such invitation, of course, has been extended to Judeo-Christian specialists speaking to public school educators on how to give Judeo-Christian adherents honor and space.
In a nearby high school, a prayer room was set aside for Muslim students. No such prayer room or any other respect has been presented those of the Judeo-Christian heritage.
Liberals, in other words, will do whatever it takes to obliterate America of its rightful Judeo-Christian heritage. This is accented every year particularly during the Christmas season. Any other so-called "religious expression" can come to the fore but the Christian particulars must be silenced at all costs. So we hear throughout the Christmas season, not Christian hymn carols, but "separation of church and state."
Once again, liberals have taken language to serve their own twisted purposes. They took "homosexual" and made it "gay." They took "pro-choice" and made it "protecting females." They take "separation of church and state" and make it "wiping out America’s Judeo-Christian heritage."
What those of the Judeo-Christian heritage must do — and far more concertedly than they have ever done in the past — is to make clear to the public what "separation of church and state" really means. This must be put in print in magazines and journals. It must be preached from pulpits. It must be taught in religion classes. It must be spelled out in letters to the editor.
Unfortunately, this simply has not been done. The church in particular has permitted the liberals to carry on with their prostitution of the phrase. I have been appalled over the years to note that the church specifically has not risen to expose the liberals’ misuse of that phrase. Therefore, the young have taken quickly to the liberals’ definition while the church has sat, in the main, silent, allowing the enemy to win out.
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
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