I Swear! Again!

I Swear! It's not a conspiracy. The flubbed presidential oath of office (can't we get anything right these days?) will spawn a thousand conspiracy theories, mark my words

WaPo tells us Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama redid the oath at the White House. Drudge adds conspiratorially that no Bible was used!

Okay, all you nuts on the left! Turn to the nut on your right and give him your tinfoil hat!

Time to Set Aside Childish (and Racist) Prayers

Reverend Joseph Lowery gave an uplifting inauguration benediction that was marred by a racist snipe at white people:

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.

So the "white" have not yet embraced "right"? This is racist and divisive, and worse, it was met with laughter and official embrace, not the opprobrium it deserved.

Reverend Lowery has been jailed, shot at, fire hosed and dog-bitten, among other things, all in the noble pursuit of civil rights (human rights!).

This great, brave man, basking in that glorious day on a dais of pomp and glory, with the whole world watching, crouched down and stuck chewing gum under the seat of American consciousness.

He obviously paid no heed to the new president's words:

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

Beautiful words, but difficult to accomplish when citizens are aiming racist jibes at one another. No one should understand that better than Reverend Lowery, and the president who laughed at his words.

Time to set aside childish things. Yeah...

Militant Atheism is Un-American

Believers and unbelievers of all stripes have equal standing under the law. We have no national religion, thank God. President Obama, like all presidents before him will include "So help me God" in his oath of office and will engage in prayer during the inauguration ceremony. This is free exercise of religion, and it compels no one to do anything against their belief system. Opposing this is Un-American and historically ignorant.

The Religion Clause of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

It's a simple phrase: The federal government can neither establish a religion nor prohibit people from exercising their religious beliefs. The founders' writings show that they believed faith in God to be essential to the survival of the Republic. Indeed, public prayer and acts of fasting were common in those days, practiced by these great men, but never mandated by government.

Consider this quote by the father of our country, George Washington, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.

Thomas Jefferson saw no role whatsoever for the federal government in deciding religious issues:

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must then rest with the states, as far as it can be in any human authority."
--Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808. ME 11:428

Supreme Court Associate Justice Joseph Story, anti-slavery judicial pioneer and constitutional scholar summarized the founders' intentions, as explained at Findlaw.com.

''Probably,'' Story also wrote, ''at the time of the adoption of the constitution and of the amendment to it, now under consideration, the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state, so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship. An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.''

8 The object, then, of the religion clauses in this view was not to prevent general governmental encouragement of religion, of Christianity, but to prevent religious persecution and to prevent a national establishment. 9

But then the lawyers entered in, and the justices twisted this simple concept beyond all recognition.

This interpretation has long since been abandoned by the Court, beginning, at least, with Everson v. Board of Education, 10 in which the Court, without dissent on this point, declared that the Establishment Clause forbids not only practices that ''aid one religion'' or ''prefer one religion over another,'' but as well those that ''aid all religions.''

We went from "Congress shall make no law" to prohibiting small town school boards from starting their meetings with a prayer. Now comes a man wishing to shut down public inauguration prayers and the use of the phrase "So help me God." Monte Kuligowski reports in The American Thinker:

With the approach of the presidential inauguration, America's most notorious atheist, Michael Newdow, is back in the headlines. Once again, he and an assortment of other plaintiffs are challenging the long-standing addendum, "So help me God," to the presidential oath of office. The lawsuit, filed by the American Humanist Association on Dec. 30, also challenges as unconstitutional, the pending invocation and benediction prayers to be offered respectively by Pastor Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery at the swearing-in ceremony of President-select Barack Obama on Jan. 20.

Kuligowski does an outstanding job explaining this constitutional travesty in layman's terms. If you care about the 1st Amendment and what has happened to it, I highly recommend this short article.

Atheist crusades such as these are a direct contradiction of the founding principles laid out by Jefferson, Madison and the other brilliant men who founded this country. While our founders would argue for the rights of atheists, they would vehemently disagree with those who seek to expunge all traces of God from society.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/01/inauguration_2009_so_help_me_g.html
http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/djclpp/index.php?action=showitem&id=38#F148
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/

Pastor Rick: Modern Day Evangelist

Mike Gallagher, God bless him, says something in a promo for his show that I profoundly disagree with.

In an ideological double-reverse back flip, he joins the liberal howls of protest at Pastor Rick Warren's giving the invocation at President Obama's inauguration. His point seems to be that Pastor Warren is besmirching Christianity by giving aid and comfort to the pro-abortion enemy.

The Apostle Paul preached to the Athenians, and Pastor Rick will preach to the Democrats.

When Mike asks "Why would Rick Warren participate in this inauguration?" I couldn't help but recall Matthew 9:11, when the Pharisees asked the disciples why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. In the next verse, Our Lord answers for himself: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

Pastor Rick Warren is following The Savior's entreaty to go and spread The Gospel wherever he can. Catholic religious have been doing this since the founding of the church. You can find them spreading the good news and making trouble all over the earth and all across the political spectrum, and all in the service of Jesus.

Conservatives and the GOP can learn a lesson from Pastor Rick and all others who evangelize outside their comfort zone. It's how you gain converts, whether your purpose is religious or ideological. I hate to use this example, but Howard Dean brought success to the Democratic party by doing the same. Liberals roundly criticized him when he embarked upon his 50 state strategy, but he stuck to it and, unfortunately for conservatives, it bore fruit.

This just illustrates what my friend's now-departed Dad, the Reverend Don, used to tell us kids. He would solemnly intone with complete conviction that there is no problem on earth that cannot be solved by consulting The Bible. This good man was right. Jesus shows us how to win friends and influence people in a completely unselfish way.

Preaching to the converted is fun, and even necessary, but the real challenge, and the greatest reward, is to sow and harvest among the dubious and hostile.