Much Ado About Jesus - Yes - For His Words are Still True

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jan 10, 2008 at 16:14

Many have written that this country was founded as a Christian nation, that in its principle declarations there were(are) many references to the Sovereign Deity that was their inspiration for setting this nation off on a course dramatically different than the countries many had fled. Reading all the documents from all this nation's original sponsors is necessary in order to capture the desires and intents from all that were blended to incorporate history's singularly most unique regime. But, as it points to religion, the point that seems to be more worked over and yet least understood (hence most easily manipulated), is that the government was not to be allowed to dictate a religious preference, or the lack thereof.

In those days, it was the various forms of Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and a smattering of other beliefs such as Judaism, etal. What was feared was that a State religion could be legislated as the national faith, such as Anglicanism from Britain or Catholicism from any of the colonial countries. The true intent was to allow the practice and congregation of whatever faith without the hindrance of the government. Why the founding would be rolling over in their graves is because the government cannot keeps its nose out of such things, much to the credit of agnostics, atheists and others who cannot stand the idea that some people actually believe their Almighty God does influence lives, even in the performance of their governmental duties.

Heaven does not forbid such influence, for it is written as a matter of fact that many (though not all) of the people engaged in the early American government wrote that a Christian influence was the best influence in the course of governmental affairs in order to protect the freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. Remove the Christian influence and we see that the target of most religious antipathies in this country is the Christianity that helped form it. This enmity started almost as soon as the country was forming. Its danger of losing the liberties was observed by many early on, but Abraham Lincoln commented that this nation's lose of those freedoms will come from within.

Thomas Jefferson wrote of the separation of church and state as a means to enjoin government from prescribing a religious preference, and the United States Supreme Court seized upon that to establish the now concrete idea that government must be sanitized from religious influences in order to effectuate a modern intent of the Constitution. The problem is that it is religious persecution in reverse. Even more, it is the source of all problems faced by the American government today, and there is no true solution in sight.

For now, the spectrum can be just about seen from and to its end, that religious ideologies in American run from the beginning of the rainbow to its end. Governmental decision-making is lost in the morass of competing ideologies and no one can come up with a plan that is acceptable to all. The latest in the political debates tells that story, as one of the more compelling examinations of the candidates is their religious affiliation.

Barack Obama's rise and fall as a candidate is not about his religious convictions, though it is colored by it. For him, his biggest challenge is still, even forty years later after M L King Jr, about whether this nation will get past his ethnic origins. New Hampshire's results tells one aspect of this.

So, it remains to be seen whether religion is important or not in this presidential campaign in the final analysis, but also whether or not a people divided in partisan bickering (including some with religious overtones) are going to find someone that can carry this nation away from its current situation of being a target of competing ideologies and remain strong in the future of this global community. The summations (campaign promises) are going to be difficult to swallow, but the jury has a very short time to decide before things in this nation finally get out of anyone's control.

After that, it will be a matter of just how much ado there is about Jesus, because He cares. For after all is said and done, what He said near two thousand years ago is still as true about mankind as it ever was, and no one will be able to argue that with Him, and win.

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