On July 4th, 1776, The 2nd Continental Congress got together at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and approved the language of the Declaration of Independence which had been written, in large part, by Thomas Jefferson. When the declaration was written, the thirteen colonies were engaged in a tumultuous war with Great Britain that had lasted for almost a year.The second paragraph of the declaration contains one of the greatest sentences of any document written during the founding of our country. The first sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration is the basis of our entire belief system here in America. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...." The first clause of that sentence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident" means that those truths need no further explanation, that everybody should know they exist and know of their meaning.
Recently, I received a mass e-mail that stated that due to the shooting at Ft. Hood, all Muslim soldiers in our military should be discharged. I analogized this to saying that if all Muslims should be kicked out because they may or may not be terrorists, than all Christians should be kicked out because they may or may not be members of the KKK. This e-mail went on to say that ALL Muslims believe in the teachings of hate and death and that there is no such thing as a good Muslim. I am not a Muslim, but I was deeply offended by this statement because the beauty of our great nation is that any person can worship any way they want without being persecuted for it. If a person wants to worship a plate of spaghetti or a book written by L. Ron Hubbard, they should be allowed to do it, and should still be allowed to participate in the military.
How many shootings have occurred in the military in recent years? Only one that I can remember. It just so happens that it was promulgated by a Muslim and occurred in a post 9/11 United States. Had the same shooting, by the same person happened on September 8th, 2001, we wouldn't be having this discussion, we would simply be saying "wow, what a tragedy."
What the writer of that e-mail failed to realize is that his "proposal" would violate the other greatest document ever written, the Constitution of the United States, whose first amendment reads "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." I am not overly religious, but it is my belief that Jesus taught us compassion, tolerance, and love. And this e-mail, which was written by a Christian fundamentalist group known as www.liveprayer.com would seem to go against the teachings of Jesus.
I will end this here by saying that Christians need to follow the example of their leader. They cannot just conveniently ignore or forget certain sections of his teachings. They need to stop going to church one hour a week and returning to their sinful lifestyles, if they want people to take them seriously, they need to reflect the teachings of Jesus in everyday life. People criticized Obama for telling the Arab nations that the United States is not a Christian Nation, and while I am not at all a supporter of Obama, he had it right. The United States, while founded by Christian men, is a nation of many people, backgrounds, and religions. This is what makes us the Greatest Country on Earth.
