At the heart of secular objections to religious expression in the public square is the accusation that someone is trying to ‘impose’ their beliefs. The companion accusation is someone is trying to establish a state religion.
Thus, Jesus Christ is expelled from public schools, along with prayer, the Ten Commandments, all Bibles, and any reference to God, all expressions prohibited as if they represent some kind of evil advancing dictatorship, oppression and discrimination.
Even street preachers are being arrested and prosecuted now. Imagine that. In America, Christian preachers arrested for preaching about the true religion of love.
It is impossible to imagine how a street preacher is “imposing” belief. Imposition implies force, threats, demanding compliance, with proof of conversion, and confession. Imposing a belief denies the hearer a choice, forcing him to listen.
Street preachers proclaim the Gospel, which in and of itself is an invitation, not an exercise in force. Is anyone forced to listen? No, but bakers, and florists, and photographers are being forced to ignore conscience, forced by the state to promote what they consider sin. Who is imposing belief? The Christians? Or the state run by secularists and atheists?
Another illustration: the case of Judge Roy Moore in Alabama. People accused him of “imposing” Christianity when he placed a Ten Commandments monument at the courthouse.
In an age when any Judeo-Christian reference or expression is considered a gross violation of the 1st Amendment, and worse, a heinous violation of the “statute not to offend”, such monuments are rejected by popular opinion and complex legal reasoning. Yet, the monument does not establish a religion. If it did, it would establish Judaism, correct? The monument does not violate anyone’s rights, does it? It merely reminds us that for centuries in the West, the Ten Commandments served as the cornerstone for all justice systems acting in support of civilization. (Recall: Ten Commandments monuments appear all over the U.S. Supreme Court building, and elsewhere in D.C., but such a monument in Alabama is somehow anathema!)
The Commandments place no demand a citizen believe a particular religion. They merely remind people that murder, and stealing and lying and mistreating your parents are all destructive, that adultery and covetousness are evil, harmful, and deeply disruptive. Even if you reject the Commandments to worship God and avoid idols, you are not prosecuted, or forced to comply, are you?
So again we see secularists raising a false alarm with false accusations rendering false conclusions: Christians are trying (like the Taliban) to establish a state religion, trying to force their religion on others, setting up a dictatorship. It is lost on them the fact the 1st Amendment was written by Christians who remembered those literally burned by despots in Europe insisting on state establishment of religion.
Recall the phrasing: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . “
Congress, the law making body of the central government, shall not establish a religion. Period. May the states put up monuments reminding people about our heritage, about the importance of law and order, and the foundations of law and order? Is doing so establishing a state religion? The answers are obvious.
That same Congress many not interfere with anyone’s right to exercise their religion as they see fit. Does this mean that state government officials may violate the rights of citizens? Not if we hold to the idea of federal supremacy in such matters as per the Constitution. Government cannot prohibit the free exercise, period.
So Roy Moore, in putting up the monument, did not violate the Constitution by having Congress establish a religion, nor did he do anything to establish a religion, and, he did not violate anyone’s right to freely exercise religion. Yet, the state of Alabama ordered him to remove the monument and when he declined, appealing his case, he was removed from the State Supreme Court, by force. Again, who is imposing values, demanding conformity?
Secularists like to talk about diversity. They like to assure us they are most tolerant. But they are quick to attack the standards preserving the rule of law when it suits them to figuratively lynch anyone getting in the way of their secularist ambitions. The establishment of a thoroughly secularist society necessarily requires the eradication of religious expression, even for some, the eradication of all vestiges of Judeo-Christian tradition, but not other forms of religion, hypocritically enough.
These self-assured secularists are the first to endorse the inclusion of Sharia Law, the justice system of a true theocracy. They are eager to support the establishment of that religion, in our schools, one that uses force, and threat, to truly impose belief, demanding obedience, with a vengeance.
We must ask about motive. Why do secularists seethe with hatred and anger against all things Judeo-Christian, yet celebrate all things Sharia and Koranic? How can the former, demonstrably successful in securing liberty and providing prosperity, be condemned, while the latter, delivering dictators and deprivation be endorsed and promoted?
Apparently creating chaos and conflict is the motive. But to what end? Is it too grand a conspiracy theory to suggest secularists are simply using Sharia as another weapon in the war to destroy the West, knowing the destruction of all things Judeo-Christian effectively destroys capitalism, one of the great evils in Leftist minds? Is it also possible some Leftists are just clueless sheep taking orders from their superiors, unaware of the larger plan?
Well, how can it be a wild conspiracy theory when Leftist bullhorns like Saul Alinsky readily admit the goal is destruction of capitalism, Judeo-Christian tradition, even all of Western civilization?
Obviously, there are bigger issues involved than a monument in Alabama, yet that monument and what it teaches about what is good and right and just is the only thing standing against the forces of darkness that would destroy it.
If we allow our foundations to be destroyed, the structure will collapse. God help us in that day, for He will be the only One who can.
This Republic has thrived for 242 years, in part, by walking a difficult line—honoring Judeo-Christian traditions without allowing government to establish a state religion or infringing religious liberty. Why do we allow the destruction of those constructive values today, submitting to the agents of failure, accommodating those who would infringe our rights in the name of establishing a secular state religion?
photo credit: Excerpted from: dcdailyphotos 10 Commandments House near Supreme Court via photopin (license)
