By: rcornish

rcornish — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:35:31 +0000

Well said Cort. And I agree 100% the system that we have today is not at all what was the true intent of the founding fathers. If you read through all the blogs here on occasion you find my little rants where I get off on a tangent about just that exact thing.

By: Cort Kirkland

Cort Kirkland — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:03:54 +0000

Let me try to take this one at a time with empirical evidence. Faith is a personal experience or at least it should be. About choosing sides let me share this from Abraham Lincoln, a Republican and devout believer-”Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.”
As an aside Lincoln also put the kibosh on a movement to pass legislation that Christianity be named officially the religion of the country. Why is that? Simply that religious beliefs don’t make the best policy, and Lincoln still had a good idea of what religious persecution was.
Today, we have a movement to reform our corporate oligarchy into a corporate theocracy. Just curious-how is a government run based on a belief in Christianity any different than one based on Allah? You’re right about god not choosing sides because as an all-powerful being he could choose to eliminate disease, death, miscarriages, and strife in general.
Another hero of the right is Thomas Jefferson, who no doubt was a devout man that just happened to bang his slaves. He also despite his beliefs supported the right to believe in anything because he also knew what persecution was-”Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burdened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”- Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom 1786. In other words, if you choose to worship a rock in your front yard then you certainly can.
From a political perspective our problem is simple, the party system is killing ideas and thought for the sake of affiliation. George Washington warned of this inevitable problem in his farewell address in 1796- “They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.” Or as put more succinctly by Jefferson, “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
So, what can we take away from all this? We all are certainly perfect in believing whatever we want when it comes to faith and religion, but we can just as certainly disagree. Who would Jesus vote for? Neither, obviously. Because this is an issue for man to decide, free will for lack of a better term. Something an omnipotent, omniscient creator is impossible of granting because of the nature of the concept. But in the end, it’s simple, we have destroyed the vision of the founding fathers when it comes to our political system. This is something that our society nor god seems to care about, but as most people forget three telling bible passages. “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39. “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” Matthew 7:12 “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Romans 13:9.

Comments on: WWJD

By: rcornish

By: Cort Kirkland