There was a "letter to the editor" in the OD recently, "United States was designed to be a diverse nation," that argued that Hobby Lobby was doing a "disservice" to various religious groups by claiming that the United States was a Christian country. This letter bothered me.
Although the writer correctly points out that the Constitution prevents our government from establishing an official religion or prohibiting people from practicing their religion, the writer ignores the facts (1) that the nation's founders were primarily Christian, (2) that their religious beliefs shaped their view of human rights, and (3) that our founding documents must be viewed from the perspective of those beliefs to be properly understood.
In that sense, while carrying no official religion, America IS a Christian nation because Judeo-Christian values are woven throughout our system of laws.
Contrary to the title of the letter-to-the-editor, the United States was not "designed to be a diverse nation" as the Constitution is neutral on the subject. To accept such a premise opens us up to accepting things (such as Sharia Law) under the guise of "religious freedom" that go against our laws and our culture as an American people. Great Britain and France have already gone down that road by embracing "diversity" to the extreme, and now are not only in danger of losing their own cultures, but the safety and tranquility of their citizenry.
Hobby Lobby is trying to remind us of the Christian underpinnings of our system of government, which are the underpinnings of our culture. That is a great service to the American public.
3 comments:
No one is forced to work at Hobby Lobby if you are employed there you already know the conditions and limits to your employment. If you do not like those conditions of employment DON'T WORK THERE.
It’s undeniable that the basis of the U.S. Constitution was rooted in decent Christian values. The founding fathers definitely did not intend to dignify those who practice religious beliefs that worship evil entities with sacrifices ranging from killing and torturing innocent animals to throwing first born virgins into active volcanoes. If the founding fathers were to read some of our headlines today, the living document we know as the U.S. Constitution would certainly be rewritten. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court Justices have decided controversial cases with a predominantly Liberal slant. However, with the Hobby Lobby decision, wisdom prevailed in favor of the innate intent of the Constitution that the founders intended.
I've always thought that the Founding Fathers cared little for the religious beliefs of those citizens for whom they founded a country. I don't think religion mattered to them. Some may think the FF's were Christian. Certainly not in creed. Read what every school boy used to read, Franklin's autobiography. He invented his own commandments. Jefferson cut and pasted his own bible, leaving what he found "distasteful"to fall to the floor. Our constitution comes from practical men whose interests were in farming and learning and industry and making money and being left alone by an intrusive government. They would be surprised to find they are sometimes held up as moral examples. (A real laugh to the likes of John Adams, the prudish judge of his fellow founders.) If I could call up Jefferson and explain what our country is like today, I think that rather than suggest we rewrite our constitution in an attempt to fix a people who would allow such things to happen he might instead suggest I leave and find another country. The constitution was devised for a people who were capable of self government, able to decide on their morality and practices and get along with each other. It was not designed to fix evil. It doesn't do well reforming the stupid, either.
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