When I was growing up people had the good sense not to discuss politics, religion, or sex. People had the good taste to keep their dirty laundry within the confines of their own home. No one hung out their dirty laundry. Today, the more people that are open about their bad habits, their personal feelings, or their secrets, are there for the world to witness. In my humble opinion that is why our society is so accepting of everything and anything. It actually makes one cool to air their dysfunctional lives.
Most people have a secret they we would not want known, but Christians confess it to God, and repent, because they are convicted of sin. Today our society just makes excuses for it. This is why our country will never move forward. We are living in the days of Sodom
O.K….let’s take sex, for example. Our society now accepts, open marital relationships, soft pornography, (at the moment most still frown at hard porn), people living together (we used to think of it as “shacking up”), but now it is quite acceptable. We embrace that homosexuals have all the benefits of marriage that God created for man and woman. Homosexuals have been around as long as the bible, this is not something new. Of course we never want to repeat the past and condemn anyone for their life style. Man was given free choice and a free will to do whatever our laws today allow. Christians believe sin is sin, and there is no sin that is better or worse than another. However, God is a holy God, and only one man walked the earth without sin and that was Jesus. No one, but Him, is without sin. However, as a society we accept whatever feels good and is politically correct, and that is a new standard.
Now let’s, take religion, another taboo topic. Today our society is very conscious of not offending most religions. I say most religions because it doesn’t seem that society cares about offending Christians. Between the three major religions, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, they have all suffered from persecution, but I am speaking of today, not the past. Today Christians are held in contempt. It is obvious they offend atheists, and far left liberals. Otherwise why would they fight so hard to remove God from every part of secular society by using a lame excuse as not mixing government and religion? They don’t care or understand what Thomas Jefferson wrote. It was written to defend freedom of religion, so government could never dictate religion, not the other way around. His quote will be at the end of this article.
Now, for another taboo subject…politics. This topic is more harmful and threatening than sex, and religion. It can cause you to lose more friends than disagreeing on either sex or religion. I am really amazed at how hateful people can become on their political views. The odd part is that most people know very little about politics, only what they hear on the news, and the people that are involved only listen to one side…either conservative or liberal news stations. For all practical purposes newspapers are extinct, the only good thing in them are the sales. So to be really up on political news, you must listen and read up on both sides of an issue; before you make your mind up on what you believe to be true. However, it is impossible not to mix sex, and religion with politics, because it’s our politics that dictate who we are and how our society should be ruled.
The rest of this article speaks to the 75% of the population in America Jacksonville , FL
When I was a young girl I was raised Catholic and didn’t believe in abortion, but as I grew older my beliefs changed and although I still believed that I would never have an abortion, I still didn’t feel I had the right to make that choice for anyone else. I believed they would have to answer to God for what they did. Well, when I became a born again Christian, I realized that if I don’t speak out and say it is wrong, what I am actually saying is that’s it’s OK. It’s never OK to break God’s Commandments. It’s never OK to be silent when society goes against breaking the "Ten Commandments". I can tell you from experience of counseling women from all ages who had abortions that they never get over the pain and remorse of making that decision. They feel the lost of their child the rest of their lives.
Also, why do Christians in our society not care that marriage has been redefined by our society to appease the minority. Marriage was a gift from God for man and woman to be united as one. Homosexuals have been married by civil law for years, so how do Christians justify these broken commandments that God gave to the Jews and Christians?
Another issue that grieves me is that so many people seem to want a socialist society. Do they really want their freedom to choose taken away? Do they want the government to take care of them? Why is their anger targeted at only the 1% of the population who are rich? Do they not realize the 1% of rich people are the people who start up big factories and business that create their jobs? Most of these "rich" people are self-made millionaires. It would be far easier to take away their “loop-holes” than unfairly taxing them just because they’re rich? God only asks Christians to give 10% for the warehouse, so there should be plenty left over to take care of the poor and the hungry. Do these Christians give God their 10%? Do they feed the hungry, or give to the poor. Or do they want the rich to do it all? It is a fact that middle class conservatives give more money to charities than the far left liberals.
So why do we allow the minority far left wing to rule our nation? What has happened in the last ten years to divide our nation so drastically? It is more than just greed. Greed has always been around, democrats and republicans have always been around. The rich, the middle class, and the poor, have always been around. Immigration has always been around, atheists and agnostics have always been around, and extremists have always been around. So what has changed?
It is man’s heart that has changed, and he has turned his back on his creator for the last time. We are living in the end days, where sin will increase at a remarkable rate, and the book of Matthew will come to pass. History has already witnessed hundreds of prophecies come true. If you are not a Bible believer, I tell you true, it is the most remarkable, truthful, and inspiring book you will ever read. It has been with us from Genesis 1145 B.C. to Revelation early 90 A.D. It is the spirit of the living God and through his Saints He gave witness of His love for mankind.
So when you vote next year, vote your conscience, and not politics. If we want to make the right choice as Christians we have to choose God’s Word every time. Politics has no conscience. For believers, it’s God’s way or the highway. We can not vote race, color or creed. Never allow politics to override God’s principles.
CHURCH AND STATE
Ancient history is replete with examples of the mixing and melding of Church and state. Typically a successful ruler or king would assume various "priestly" titles, in addition to the "temporal" titles that such a position tended to confer. Some examples of this certain Church-state mixing and melding are: the execution of Socrates, whereby Socrates was sentenced to death by the Athenian state for among other things, "his disrespect for the Gods", the claim of many of the ancient Judean kings to rule with a mandate from Heaven, or the Edict of Thessalonica, whereby Christianity was officially made the state religion of the Roman Empire.
At the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther articulated a doctrine of the two kingdoms. According to James Madison, perhaps one of the most important modern proponents of the separation of church and state, Luther's doctrine of the two kingdoms marked the beginning of the modern conception of separation of church and state.
In the 1530s Henry VIII, angered by the Catholic Church's refusal to annul his marriage with his wife Catherine of Aragon, decided to break with the Church and set himself as ruler of the new Church of England, the Anglican Church, ending the separation that had existed[ between Church and State in England. Main article: Separation of church and state in the United States
In the United States Jefferson reflected his frequent speaking theme that the government is not to interfere with religion. The phrase was quoted by the United States Supreme Court first in 1878, and then in a series of cases starting in 1947. The phrase "separation of church and state" itself does not appear in the United States Constitution. The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Supreme Court did not consider the question of how this applied to the states until 1947; when they did, in Everson v. Board of Education, all nine justices agreed that there was a wall of separation between church and state, but a majority held that the present case (a local authority paying to transport parochial students to school), the benefits to the children outweighed the Constitutional objection.
By Estelle P. Shrum
Author of: He Is The Word
2 comments:
You had a lot to say Estelle and I enjoyed reading every word! LOL.
Hellos Bernard, I usually don't go on that long...I don't know what came over me. ha!
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