I have been reading the "Light and the Glory" by Peter Marshall and David Manuel, which I have been really enjoying. Providentially, I have entered the chapters on the Pilgrims this week and their long journey from England to Holland to the New World to build a New Jerusalem. They were escaping religious persecution and believed it was God’s will for them to build this New Jerusalem using Christ as their cornerstone and themselves as the stones of the temple.
I believe it is important to remember this heritage and the reasons why many Americans are here today. Secularists seek to remove God from all aspects of government and society which tramples all over our history and faith that has been intertwined since this countries divine inception.
It is a worldview issue as C.S. Lewis put it, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” A secular worldview seeks to do the same thing only it is this worldview that secularists deem appropriate for government and schools. This is an obvious double standard as they seek to rely upon their favorite saying, “separation of church and state”.
No Christian wants a state sponsored church because that is exactly what the pilgrims were fleeing from to begin with. However, no Christian wants to be told that their worldview is an unacceptable one in government, school or public life altogether. It is important to remember these foundational aspects of our country, our society and our true freedoms. We are guaranteed constitutionally the freedom to practice religion, but not the freedom from it. We are guaranteed that there will never be a Church of the United States of America, but we are not guaranteed that a Christian worldview needs to be wholly separated from any form of government. It is impossible to separate man from soul, C.S. Lewis, “You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”
I have excerpted three articles on faith, country and thanksgiving which I think adds to this important perspective on our great land. The Lord has blessed us abundantly because of the faithfulness of some and despite the hatred of others. Be thankful, be blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving: A Day to Honor the Lord By Barbara Plating
When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth on that fateful day in November 1620, little did they know they would set a pattern in motion that would bless this land from “sea to shining sea.”
William Bradford, Pilgrim historian and governor, wrote the following about their arrival in his book Of Plymouth Plantation: “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. And no marvel if they were thus joyful.”
...
The Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving with an abundance of food, but later that fall there were more mouths to feed as others arrived from England. This began to deplete the stores of food and during the Pilgrims’ second winter; they were ultimately reduced to a ration of five kernels of corn per day. Through all of these trials, they shared what they had and cared for the sick left in their care. They continued to trust in the Lord who never abandoned them.
In future Thanksgivings, the Pilgrims would place five kernels of corn on their plates to remind them of that second severe winter, which tested their faith doubly. The Pilgrims focused on giving thanks as a way of life.
Thankfulness or Thanklessness: Where Virtue Begins or Ends By Rev. Mark H. Creech
Luke 24:13-33 tells the remarkable story of how Jesus appeared after His resurrection to two men on their way to Emmaus. They had hoped Jesus was the promised Messiah who would redeem Israel. But their hopes had been dashed since Jesus was crucified and even His body now appeared to be stolen. Feeling distraught, perplexed and defeated, they didn't recognize Jesus as He came alongside to walk with them down that dusty road.
As they arrived at Emmaus during eventide, they prepared to partake of a meal together. Still a stranger to them, Jesus lifted up His voice in thanksgiving as He broke bread. It was in that moment, the Bible says, "their eyes were opened" and joy filled their hearts. They realized Jesus was not dead, but risen, alive and present with them. It's profoundly significant that they recognized our Lord in the act of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving opens the way to the presence of God.
Grace, gratitude and God by Michelle Malkin
The snobs of secularism will no doubt disparage such simple-minded expressions of piety. They call us "Jesus freaks," "Bible-thumpers" and "fundies." They accuse us of being "weak" and of suffering from a "neurological disorder." They consider us such a threat that they have sought to expunge even the most innocuous references to thanking God in the public schools.
...
Once an unabashedly pious land, we have been transformed into a nation of historically clueless ingrates -- embarrassed about our heritage, afraid of offending all newcomers, and more committed to inculcating a sense of entitlement over a culture of gratitude. Abe Lincoln's Thanksgiving proclamation of 1863 rings truer than ever:
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us!
Amen.
UPDATE:
Thanksgiving Day, 2004 - A Proclamation By the President of the United States of America, George W. Bush
All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. We are grateful for our freedom, grateful for our families and friends, and grateful for the many gifts of America. On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge that all of these things, and life itself, come from the Almighty God.
Almost four centuries ago, the Pilgrims celebrated a harvest feast to thank God after suffering through a brutal winter. President George Washington proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, and President Lincoln revived the tradition during the Civil War, asking Americans to give thanks with "one heart and one voice." Since then, in times of war and in times of peace, Americans have gathered with family and friends and given thanks to God for our blessings.
Posted by price at November 24, 2004 10:59 AMHiya Jeff!
I know I'm, oh, a week late commenting, but I only just recently returned to my computer after a bout of illness and then taking a break from ye ol' internet. Anyway, I enjoyed your comments on our post on Intelligent Design on our blog, so I thought I'd come here and check yours out.
I want to respond directly to your current post, but before I do that I want to respond, however indirectly, to something you wrote in comments to us, and it seems somewhat appropos here. My purpose with that post was to show that ID was bad science, not to make an argument about creationism. I leave it to theologians and philosophers to argue about creationism. The point was that if you accept science as a valid method of inquiry (and if you live in the United States, you're the beneficiery of science, even if you don't like it), then Darwin's theory is sound. Yes, it is a theory, but to argue on that basis everything is "just a theory". You don't disprove things that way if you're interested in being rational. If you want to be rational, you dissect the quality of the arguments and evidence to compare and contrast theories.
I also would like to respond to the point you made about Darwinism being taken "on faith" just like creationism. That isn't true. The difference between science and faith is that in science if evidence comes along that disproves a long held theory (even if it's hundreds or even thousands of years old) then the theory is discarded and people are forced to adjust their understanding. Faith isn't like that. You have faith, you believe what you believe.
All of this relates to your post in the following way. As a Unitarian-Universalist(a denomination of Christianity I share with Jefferson, for what it's worth), I've been taught to believe that faith and science are completely compatible. God gave us minds, but they are of limited capacity. From that we derive that we're allowed to think and to attempt to understand issues that are amenable to rationality. Faith fills in the gaps. One can't "prove" the "rightness" of equal justice and freedoms. These ideas spring from fatih.
So what's this have to do with seperation of church and state? Well, we believe that in a sense, one is guaranteed freedom from religion. We believe that one should be allowed to profess one's faith, certainly, but not impose that on others. There is no relativsm here. It is your right have and profess your faith, but not your right to force me to do the same. As an example, if people want prayer in public school, I have no problem with that. However, students(or parents of said students) should have the right to abstain. It is my faith that guides me to this conclusion.
As an aside, I have to note it's too bad you quote Michelle Malkin, because she tends to make up pretty much everything she purports to be "reporting". Her quote above is a perfect example - she creates a straw man that doesn't exist.
Sorry to be so long winded. Hope if our blog gets interesting again you'll stop by. Cheers!
--j
Posted by: jayinbmore at November 30, 2004 03:30 PMJ
I appreciate your honest and civil discourse and for stopping by my own humble contribution to the blogosphere.
Let me begin by saying I was not defending the science of the ID movement, but wanted to provide a defense for what I believe is at least the foundation in the theology of an intelligent designer. I also was not stating that science and theology are at odds with one another. I believe that God is the creator of all science and if science contradicts creation and God’s word, then it is the science that is bad.
I don’t believe that everything is just a theory because I do believe in the biblical principles that God’s word provides an absolute truth and map for all creation. The theory of evolution, while intriguing is not biblically supported. It is a question of your compass being the finite mind that God provided you or being His very word of truth and infinite nature, which encompasses more than the mind can comprehend.
God is not the deceiver, but Satan is and if evolution were true, it would make God’s mandated dominion of man over the animals untrue. With man being an evolved and evolving animal, it would be quite difficult to make that separation. Therefore as I stated earlier, any science that is in basic contradiction with Scripture cannot be true and thus is bad science.
The freedom from religion that you speak of is derived from letters that Jefferson wrote and nothing that is constitutional in nature. I do not attempt to impose Christianity on anyone, but it is the absolute truth that I adhere to with my worldview. Wavering on your idea of truths being absolute in nature leads directly to relativism. I would not seek to force anyone to pray to the God of the Bible, but I do believe that a prayer to any other gods falls on deaf ears.
The misconception that Christians wish to be the police of faith and anyone found not worshipping their God must be punished is simply not true. God himself will take care of that as He has promised.
The problem with affirming the belief in Unitarian-Universalism as a Christian denomination is that at the very least they affirm two very opposing ideas to Christianity:
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
• Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.
The very bent of the human heart is towards sin and thus devoid of any reliability when it comes to imparting theological wisdom apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. Any religion that is earth-centered and not God-centered or Heavenward is defined as a cult in biblical terms. These are not ideas that just don’t mesh well with Christianity; they stand in direct contradiction to it.
As for quoting Michelle Malkin, I don’t believe she has created the secular snobbery but is simply an observer of it. I’m not saying that you are guilty of that, but there is a clear and present hatred for anyone that finds the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom rather than ignorance. This is present on college campus nationwide and many supposed objective media sources.
Posted by: Jeff Price at November 30, 2004 05:11 PMJeff,
Wow. Thanks for taking the time to respond(and not banning me from your blog either), and also thank YOU for the civil discourse. Rather rare, yeah?
You've written is quite a bit to respond to, and since I'm supposed to be working right now, I will be brief(or as brief as I can), but I hope we can keep this conversation up.
Anyway, the first thing I'd say is that clearly you and I have very different conceptions of what science is. Science - at least as I've practiced it in my career as an engineer(which is applied science, or so I've been told) - is an attempt to apply disciplined thought and methodology to find how things work, or construct things(like software or cars) that work. I've been told (and tend to agree with this) that if you want absolute truth, science is not where you look. However, if you want better ways to build bridges, do complex mathematical equations, program and build computers, practice medicine or launch space ships, science is quite useful. So I disgree with your statement that if science contradicts god's word, it's bad science. To me, it's how one reasons using the available evidence - conclusions subject to change.
Also, I see a bit of a conundrum with saying that
"God’s word provides an absolute truth and map for all creation" and then saying God's very word of truth and infinite nature "encompasses more than the mind can comprehend". I may have misread this, but to me it reads that God's given us an absolute map which we will forever be incapable of reading. I'm not attempting to be cute with this. For me this has been the crux of my disagreement with a "fundamentalist" view of Christianty.
It's quite alright to say "some things you cannot hope to understand", and those things I will quite rightly take to be right on faith. It's another to say "some things you cannot hope to understand, but you better take them as absolute law." How can I follow the law if I don't - indeed, cannot hope to - understand it?
I agree with you that the spiritual teachings of earth centered religions is a blight on the UU community. I tend to find people who claim to practice those beliefs irritating, to say the least. I've never managed to find a Unitarian Universalist Church outside of Detroit which didn't make a home for self indulgent crystal loving starsign reading snake oil drinkers. One of the reasons I stopped attending church was due to a proliferation of same. I can say that it's those darn Universalists that are mucking up the works.
True, the Jeffersonian stuff I talked about wasn't truly constitutional in nature. Neither, however, is the religious nature of the pilgrims. I think the two had an influence, of course, but I didn't find that to be the subject of your post. Unfortunately the Constitution is open to interpretation. If it weren't, we wouldn't need judges.
There is much more I'd like to say, but I will have to continue tomorrow, if you'll let me. Take care!
--j
Posted by: jayinbmore at November 30, 2004 08:45 PM