Religion Is Under Attack

Religion Is Under Attack

You worry about a terrorist attack and it does happen many places in unexpected ways. The TV and the newspapers make us very much aware of our danger. What they don’t warn us about is the subtle attack on the Christian religion in America.

The news reports on the burning of churches, the nuns marched down the road to their execution, the Bibles that have been burned and their owners tortured. But that is over seas where we can’t do anything about it. We shake our head, dab at our eyes, sigh, ”What a shame.” and promptly forget it ever happened.

What would you do if it happens here? “This is America! Something like that can’t happen Here!” I sincerely hope your right, but I am having doubts. This is nothing like the America that I grew up in. If it ever came to an actual confutation, my question remains- What would you do?

We take our religion casually. We accept whatever our minister, preacher, priest, rabbi or leader tells us. We don’t feel any need to question or investigate on our own. When something just doesn’t make a lot of sense, we ignore our uneasy feeling because this is what we have always been taught and that is good enough for us. No! It isn’t good enough! We need to Know what we believe and Why we believe this way.

You can’t believe deeply in something that you can’t wrap your mind around comfortably. Be honest, you have doubts about why your religion believes the way they do in some area.

Make no mistake about it. America and Christians are under attack. Although America was founded on religious freedom the Christian religion is being fazed out and Christians don’t notice. This week alone- Saturday, October 5, 2013-in particular-I found two articles in the news that prove, to me, that the very core of what made this country unique, powerful, and free is crumbling.

The first one is bad, A middle school in Ohio will be forced to permanently remove a portrait of Jesus from its school grounds and pay nearly $100,000 after reaching a settlement Friday with two groups, including the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The settlement requires the Jackson City School District in southern Ohio to pay the ACLU and Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation damages and legal fees totaling $95,000.

The two sides had a tentative agreement months ago that bogged down in more legal filings after the two groups said the school district continued to keep the Jesus portrait, and displayed it on the school lawn during a prayer meeting. Court filings show the portrait was also visible to those entering an art-storage area. “All of this in unnecessary,” said James Hardiman, legal director for ACLU of Ohio. “The law is pretty clear…the display of this particular kind of religious artifact (in a public school) is unconstitutional.”

As bad as that is, and there are a lot of cases like this around the country every day, I am concerned more by this next one.

The words “Christmas recess” and “Easter recess” apparently will stay on Greensburg Salem’s school calendar, despite a request from a Greensburg woman to change them for reasons of separation of church and state.

School directors indicated during a discussion on Wednesday that they want to keep the terms and not use the terms “winter break” and “spring break” suggested by resident Nina Lewis.

[So far it sounds like they are standing up for Christmas and Easter right? Well the reason for the stand is what I find most disturbing. Read on]

Director Lee Kinkle defended using the terms, saying to many people Christmas and Easter are celebrated but have no religious overtones.

Christmas trees, the Easter bunny and gifts are symbols of the holidays and are used in schools but are not religious, he explained, to the apparent satisfaction of most directors.

“It’s a national holiday,” Kindle said, “we’re holding it has nothing to do with religion.”

I am afraid that he is right! We have lost the meaning. Christmas is for the biggest and most expensive gifts and Easter is for the Easter bunny to bring large baskets of candy. So, I guess we won’t mind when they come for our Bibles and close our church.

719 words Loretta Ellen Edwards