A commentary on the relationship between loss of morals (generally speaking and not associated with one particular religion) and loss of freedom. by Ben, Sr.
(libertarian)
Monday, February 23, 2009
So President Obama's stimulus package has been passed, rushed without adequate debate, with no one getting the chance to read it (as admitted by New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg) until it was too late.
This package will be the death of a Republic that was on life support. It will spawn cross-generational warfare, with the older generations declaring that having fewer children reduces costs. Those who survive will leave the older generations in shock when they euthanize their grandparents and parents for the same exact reason.
The beneficiaries of this legislation ACORN, the National Council of the Race (a.k.a. La Raza), Planned Parenthood, big corporations, just to name a few are all cheering it, while many Americans dread the consequences of what will be the biggest expansion of the federal government and ponder, where did we go wrong as a nation? When did a nation with a brilliant Constitution that called for strict limits on the power of the federal government become a place where government was all-powerful?
One possible answer is that when government is of the people, by the people and for the people, it reflects the morals and values of the people, sometimes more perfectly than even they intend. When the people become immoral, government becomes that much more so. So the real question perhaps should be, where did we go wrong as a people?
When we decided we no longer needed God, we started playing god ourselves.
When we decided religion was no longer important, whatever we felt was important (money, food, entertainment, pleasure, sex, the newest celebrity, the next government handout) became our religion.
When we abandoned faith in favor of reason, we soon wound up with neither.
When we decided there were no absolute truths, absolutely anything was truly permissible.
When we decided to live however we wanted to, it became too inconvenient for others (the unborn, the elderly, the disabled) to live.
When we decreed we didn't have the right to tell others their actions were wrong, the greatest of wrongs became our right.
Many Americans decided that God wasn't "real" or "concrete" enough, yet at the same time, facts and statistics became irrelevant if they "didn't feel that way" about an issue. Sadly, those same Americans, your neighbors and mine, will be shocked when the nations and banks holding our ballooning national debt cut off our credit and call our loans. China, the Saudis, the Federal Reserve and the other international banks none of them will care how we "feel" about them taking that action.
Shockingly enough, those who forgot God will sit in wonder about how God could allow such a thing. But it was We the People who allowed it. We took the greatest, most powerful nation ever to exist, and hit the self-destruct button. People, how could you allow such a thing?
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Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2009-02-23 09:55:54
It's truly amazing how many people like you conclude that if others disagree with you on political issues, it means that they abandoned God while you didn't. The arrogance of your conclusion is incredible. To borrow from your own argument, the moment you decided to judge the faith of others based on your political beliefs is the moment that you chose to play God.
If there's better evidence than your article of the need for separation of church and state, I'm unaware of it.
I agree with Walt. Every president since Jimmy Carter could not have attained the office without holding the hand of the Almighty. Needless to say, every administration since Mr. Carter has helped put us on to this course of ruin you proclaim. Seventy per cent of Americans are church goers, and believe in an afterlife, and that America is blessed by G-d and because we are so wealthy, it must be so.
There are a lot of false preachers out there pointing a finger at someone to hate because they are different from the participants in the instant cult and may serve as an impediment to its financial well being.
It is precisely the impetus to make religion politics, or rather statecraft, that has abedded the tumbling of our Tower of Babel. When faith replaces reason, or is the gospel of truth, then surely no one can discern the devil from the deity.
What is this garbage doing on this web site? It is these god-loving people who have destroyed this country. People like this author actually called Jefferson an "atheist."
Posted By: Benjamin W. Mankowski, Sr.
Date: 2009-02-23 12:43:59
I certainly don't believe anyone who disagrees with me has forgotten God. I pray side by side with many people in my Church with whom I welcome lengthy, passionate debate on politics. Likewise, I know people of different religions from me who have much closer political beliefs to mine.
What a lot of religions seem to have in common, which has been lost and which I was commenting on, is some sense of moral absolutes - respect others, don't harm innocents, help people out when you can. I don't see those ideals being lived up to as much. I personally had many years where I was in the pews every Sunday, but the teachings weren't in my heart.
Religion and politics are different animals, although there is a certain inevitable crossover to them. When the moral values of a religion don't really mean what they say, or they don't matter anyway, it opens the door for a lot of things that are inconsistent with that religion's views.
From the same point of view, when the Constitution doesn't really mean what it says in absolute terms, or it just doesn't apply to the times anymore (yes, I've heard that from an alarming number of people), then it opens the door for executive, legislative, judicial and bureaucratic violations left and right.
Hmmm......let's see if we can apply your "logic" to another country. How about Sweden? obviously a godless country, and obviously more socialistic than us, they spend more money on their people, are loaded with beautiful women, have one of the healthiest economies in the world, run hundred of billion dollar surpluses and don't go to church.
of course, they also don't use play money for their currency and they don't bomb small middle eastern countries into oblivion for a pasttime. maybe that is what you meant by "playing god ourselves"?
Posted By: Benjamin W. Mankowski, Sr.
Date: 2009-02-23 13:29:45
Gene, I agree with you about the play money. I'd advocate getting rid of the Federal Reserve (nothing federal about it at all) and getting back to sound money. Debt-based fiat currency is a bad idea from both a religious and secular viewpoint.
Sweden, for its socialistic policies, is also not afraid of using nuclear power, unlike us. In that aspect, I'm willing to give them a lot of credit.
I also don't know enough about Sweden to know if the money they spend on their people is actually spent on their people, unlike the Bush and Obama spendathons, which are obviously not.
As for the Middle Eastern countries, I do think Saddam had to be removed, but I think "nation building" was a flawed policy. Saddam was behind an attempted assassination of George H.W. Bush when Clinton was President, and should've been taken out then. But it should've been limited to that - not even necessarily taking out his whole regime.
Sweden, on paper, does have some admitted advantages. But in America, for the time being at least, you can have a moral disagreement with a lifestyle choice and not get sent to jail for it. "Separation of church and state" was meant to protect religion from state intrusion, something they don't have in Sweden, and we're gradually losing it here.
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