The Coming Christmas Break Point
By Judson Cox (12/21/04)
America was not founded on the concept of a “wall of separation between church and state,” it was founded upon pluralism. The “wall of separation” phrase does not appear in any of our founding documents; it is taken from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. To base our laws on the correspondence of Jefferson, rather than the Constitution ratified by representatives of each of the original “united states,” is in direct opposition to our system of representative government.
Jefferson was a brilliant man, but he also favored slavery and was fanatical about macaroni and cheese. However, slavery was not enshrined as a sacred, unchangeable principle, no more than macaroni and cheese is honored as our national dish. Why then, should Jefferson’s particular eccentricity of a “wall of separation” be so honored?
In contrast, religious pluralism is enshrined in our Constitution, and is the law of the land. The relevant part of the First Amendment reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Far from creating a “wall of separation,” between church and state, this law ensured that our federal government would not prohibit its citizens from practicing the religion of their choice. Many of the representatives who ratified that document came from states that had official religions and required that representatives swear oaths of fidelity to their particular denomination of Christianity.
Over the past few decades though, our laws have become so twisted and perverted as to render the accepted interpretation of the religious aspect of the First Amendment to mean the exact opposite of the intention of those who wrote and ratified it. Now, instead of actively demanding that our federal laws not prevent the free expression and practice of religion, the ideology of secularism has been established as our official religion. That is, unless your religion is Islam, in which case the same groups that will file lawsuits to ban Christian prayer in schools, government offices and military bases, and who seek to remove every Christian symbol from public display, will champion your cause. The same ACLU that will demand a manger scene be removed from all local, state and federal property will demand that Muslim women be allowed to completely cover their faces on state issued driver’s licenses.
Pluralism dictates that government not interfere in the practice and expression of religion. The only instances in which interference would be appropriate are those in which the dictates of the religion are illegal. If, for instance, a Satanist wished to practice human sacrifice, or a Muslim wished to stone his wife to death for showing her face in public, that would be illegal (although the ACLU would probably argue that the same law they claim prohibits the singing of Christmas carols also protects a Muslim man’s “right” to beat, stone, mutilate or behead his wife). In no way does the display of a manger scene or the singing of Christmas carols in public schools violate the law. However, those great liberal champions of our “rights” are attacking Christmas across our nation in an attempt to eradicate all public expression and practice of Christianity.
According to a new Fox News Poll, 96% of all Americans celebrate Christmas, and 87% of Americans believe that nativity scenes should be allowed on public property. Why then, is an incredibly small minority of malcontent secularists, atheists, militant Muslims and a few other crackpots allowed to dictate the religious practice and expression of 96% of all Americans, especially in direct contradiction to the highest laws of our nation? Because, Americans are accommodating folk. We champion the rights of minorities, even to our own inconvenience.
There comes, at some time, a break point – a point in which our tolerance has stretched too far and begins to snap. For instance, our tolerance of militant Islam (that was especially celebrated in the 1970’s) came to a swift end when militant Islamists killed more than 3,000 of our citizens on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Our tolerance of homosexuals is rapidly deteriorating as less than 5% of the population seeks to force gay marriage on the 80% of Americans who oppose it. The break point for the tolerance of anti-Christian bigotry is coming; it may not happen this Christmas, but even a Christian can only turn the other cheek so many times.
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