God Bless America

[delldude]

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.

Next confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu.

If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period.

I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

 

[Garfield1966]

I guess I must be lucky that I am able to lead my life in what I deem to be a moral just fashion while not believing in any higher power. I do not question why your god allowed Katrina to happen, the Tsunami in the South Pacific, Holocaust, Pol-pot ... and the list goes on.

Katrina happened because hurricanes are a natural phenomenon of nature, same with tsunami's. People do bad things because some people are just not wired right. Chit happens. The fact that some people need to have an explanation for everything has always fascinated me. In ancient times people were sacrifice to satisfied the angry gods who they thought caused things they could not understand. People once thought maggots were like magic till it was discovered how they grew. Same for eclipses, earth quakes and who knows what else.

I say happy holidays. I do not know what your beliefs are and I will not be so rude as to assume that I do. It is no more difficult for me to say the word 'holiday' tan it is to say 'christmas' or 'hanuka'. No laws have been enacted (as far as I am aware) that forbid anyone to celebrate or believe anything they so desire. What an individual does on their own property or in a private institution is not legislated or regulated in any way. My wife is christian and we put up lights every year. I love it. I do it the day after Thanksgiving if I can and the more lights the better. My wife gets really scared about that time. She is never sure what she will come home too (neither am I for that matter).

I would hope that Mr Stein cannot find that the US is supposed to be an atheistic country. That would be an endorsement of a belief. And that would be against the Constitution. He conveniently omits the part that god is not mentioned in the Constitution either. Perhaps that is because the founding fathers did not feel that religion belonged in the public arena.

Faith is a private affair. At least that is how I was raised. Why people feel the need to advertise their faith to the public and try to sell it like the Ron-Co Butt Master on TV is beyond me. If a kid wants to pry before class, he/sh can do it wen ever they want, before, during or after or every 5 min for all I care. He/she does not need permission from me or anyone else to bow their head or close their eyes or do what ever it is that they do to pray. Why take time away from class? Why do something in class tat can be done before class? Like wen you wake up or eat breakfast? Why do you insist on doing in school? Is it so you can try and sell it to us non-believers? News-flash... we ain't buying. You may pray when ever you want to. Why do you insist on doing it wen others are around you? Why do you insist on doing it in public?

If my taxes help pay for something that means it is not yours. It is OURS. You can do what ever you want with what is YOURS. You may not do something that I do not agree to with something that is OURS. WE must agree what WE can do to what is OURS. I do not want YOUR religious symbol on OUR property. YOU may put YOUR tree on YOUR property, not OUR property. Just as I cannot come to YOUR house and put up a pentagram.

 

[delldude]

Majority rules..............

 

[Garfield1966]

Not according to the Constitution.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Garfield,
You wrote(and I'm quoting);

"No laws have been enacted(as far as I'm aware)that forbid ANYONE to celebrate or believe anything they so desire"

I'm assuming that you meant here in the good ol' USA.

Also, I know your thoughts are genuine, and well meaning.

So I offer this factual information so you'll be able to know the WHOLE TRUTH here in America;

In 1978(a mere 29 years ago) a Federal law was passed entitled...."The American Indian religious freedom act" that Finally made it Illegal to force our Native brothers to ABANDON their Spiritual belief system.(Which the INVADERS did from the beginning, here)(Jamestown Va. 1607)

The Indigenous peoples were persecuted as early as 1492 in the Caribbean, and shortly thereafter by the Spanish Conquistadors in Mexico, central and south America, AND parts of the west and southwest of present day America, which occurred BEFORE the pilgrims/colonists.

So doing the math(1978 minus 1492 = "486" years of christian persecution(the VERY thing they left Europe to ESCAPE from)

 

[Gilding the Lily]

Anything to get that peyote.

 

[Garfield1966]

Garfield,
You wrote(and I'm quoting);

"No laws have been enacted(as far as I'm aware)that forbid ANYONE to celebrate or believe anything they so desire"

I'm assuming that you meant here in the good ol' USA.

Also, I know your thoughts are genuine, and well meaning.

So I offer this factual information so you'll be able to know the WHOLE TRUTH here in America;

In 1978(a mere 29 years ago) a Federal law was passed entitled...."The American Indian religious freedom act" that Finally made it Illegal to force our Native brothers to ABANDON their Spiritual belief system.(Which the INVADERS did from the beginning, here)(Jamestown Va. 1607)

The Indigenous peoples were persecuted as early as 1492 in the Caribbean, and shortly thereafter by the Spanish Conquistadors in Mexico, central and south America, AND parts of the west and southwest of present day America, which occurred BEFORE the pilgrims/colonists.

So doing the math(1978 minus 1492 = "486" years of christian persecution(the VERY thing they left Europe to ESCAPE from)

Yep, you got me on that one and I should have known better. In college I took a Native American history class. I remember learning that we white folk forbade kids from speaking in their native toung and forbade the elders from performing the rain dace along with other traditional and religious dances and customs. We essentially tried to wipe out a culture.

You're point is well taken

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

This topic sounds like one of those ridiculous IdiotForwardsâ„¢ that my Grandmother gets in her email.

The only thing dumber than these, are the people that propagate them.

- astra

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

As a Jew, I sure as hell get irritated when people wish me "Merry Christmas." Who are they to assume I'm a Christian? Who are they to assume everyone's a Christian? I'm sure if I were Christian, I'd feel exactly the same way. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

I guess this proves what Ben Stein knows.

Anyone?........Anyone?..........Bueller?...............................

 

[Garfield1966]

When someone wishes me merry X-mass, I usually wish them happy Hanuka or Happy Quansa. Most get the point, some say "I'm not jewish" I just tell them I'm not christian and that now we are even. Some are confused, most get the point. Whether they learn anything I cannot say.

 

[delldude]

Yep, you got me on that one and I should have known better. In college I took a Native American history class. I remember learning that we white folk forbade kids from speaking in their native toung and forbade the elders from performing the rain dace along with other traditional and religious dances and customs. We essentially tried to wipe out a culture.

You're point is well taken

Yeah until we cracked 'Purple' and needed code talkers.

 

[delldude]

As a Jew, I sure as hell get irritated when people wish me "Merry Christmas." Who are they to assume I'm a Christian? Who are they to assume everyone's a Christian? I'm sure if I were Christian, I'd feel exactly the same way. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.

I guess this proves what Ben Stein knows.

Anyone?........Anyone?..........Bueller?...............................

Maybe you should get some of those armbands that were in vogue in Europe some 60 years ago..then we'd know and you wouldn't be so upset.

 

[AdAstraPerAspera]

Maybe you should get some of those armbands that were in vogue in Europe some 60 years ago..then we'd know and you wouldn't be so upset.

My (great)Great-Uncle is a Holocaust survivor. Why don't you make that suggestion to his face?

My people have been marginalized for 5,000 years. No, it's nothing like it used to be, but that doesn't mean that I don't hold hope that one day it will stop.

 

[delldude]

My (great)Great-Uncle is a Holocaust survivor. Why don't you make that suggestion to his face?

My people have been marginalized for 5,000 years. No, it's nothing like it used to be, but that doesn't mean that I don't hold hope that one day it will stop.

I too have relatives from that era in Germany and I don't go off the deep end when someone cordially extends what is a holiday greeting.Although I do not practice the faith as I am not 100% true blue Jew,I find it quite amusing when people make those remarks (marginalizing the people)you refer to expecting that they are not in the company of 'them'.I sometimes wonder how they would feel if I suddenly let them have it.I thought you were being slightly asinine that they would know somehow unless you wear a yarmulke,besides,they are being polite.
And yes,I was told by my dear departed Mother that I too would have worn one of those armbands even with my diluted lineage and gotten a ticket to Auschwitz.I go back to the Rothchild's.
Have a nice day...

 

[Garfield1966]

What is so difficult about wishing someone have a "happy holiday season"? Why must chrstians assume that everyone they meet is christian? Is it arrogance? Ignorance? Are they aligned with Coulter in the hopes that one day all us non-believers will be wiped from the planet and they will be the soul survivors?

Why do I have to advertise my faith or lack their of to get respect from others? Why must christians constantly assume that all the rest of us want to be like them?