'Separation' Not Intended
BY PAMELA FRANCIS: Special to The Pilot
To Editor Steve Bouser:
I am the manager of the Christian Book Store, and I put together the window you criticized in your column of Oct. 5. I was pleased to see you quote God's word in your article. Even if your intention was to ridicule it, thank you.
You mentioned three books in the window and state: "Those are not religion books. Those are government books." What is a "government book," and when did it become wrong for Christians to sell or promote a "government book"?
We sell books containing the truth and books on issues Christians are concerned about. Just because you don't agree with them doesn't make it wrong for Christians to promote or sell them.
The First Amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
There are some very significant semicolons in the text. You should also know that a semicolon indicates that the clauses following it are closely related to the main clauses where they are not joined with a coordinating conjunction, as is the case in this text.
Our freedoms of speech, the press, to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances are inseparable from our premier freedom to exercise our religious liberty without any prohibitions from Congress. You must agree that you have even less authority than Congress here.
Our founding fathers were very clear. By their First Amendment, they protected religious speech, religious press, religious assembly, and religious petitions to the government for a redress of grievances, which were not protected under the king of England.
You do not enjoy these freedoms because our founding fathers recognized a great need to protect obscenities, perversions, and the godless masses from Christianity, as one might think from your article and all that passes as protected speech today; you enjoy these freedoms only because our founding fathers valued their religious liberty more than any other right they possessed.
I don't mind sharing my First Amendment religious freedoms with secular institutions; however, it concerns me greatly that you would be so afraid of my exercise of them that you are compelled to exercise your own secular attachment to them to make a public argument against my good, peaceful, and lawful exercise of them as some sort of public danger.
How dare you? You have the audacity to take this freedom which has been secured for you by good, decent, and courageous Christian men who pledged their lives, fortunes, and honor to protect and defend; and who, true to their word, took up arms, fought and died to defend; and whose children and grandchildren and theirs also have fought and died to defend; and you attack Christians' use of it with it! You ought to be ashamed.
As for the "wall of separation" between church and state, the only wall intended by our founding fathers was to keep government out of our churches. They could not possibly have wanted to keep churches out of government, or they would not have included "and to petition the government for redress of grievances" as an exercise of religious freedom which they so clearly intended to protect under the First Amendment.
We have a government of the people, for the people, and by the people and according to the First Amendment, people, whether they are Christian or not, have the right to the peaceful, free exercise of their religion as they actively participate in this great government of, for, and by the people.
There is no "choreographed campaign to discredit our supposedly independent courts." However, there is a common ground of beliefs and values held by Christians regardless of their church affiliation. We do not conspire with one another; we all read the same book. This is a Christian nation, and because it is a Christian nation it preserves and defends the right of people to worship their God as they see fit.
You have grossly misstated the purpose and goals Christians have regarding government, politics, the law, and the courts. We simply want to defend the Constitution as written and prevent rewriting of it without the two-thirds majority required. Attempts to disenfranchise any law-abiding American citizen, including Christians, from involvement in American politics should be what worries you half to death.
About not playing with fire; The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end said, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Revelation 21:8.
Let's not play with fire
Pamela Francis is manager of the Christian Book Store in Southern Pines |
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