An Open Letter to America
- May/June 2012
- May 1, 2012
Thomas Jefferson observed: &”It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.&” Many Americans today seem to disagree with Jefferson’s political philosophy that religious belief should not be an issue in judging a candidate’s fitness to be president.
READ MOREThirty years ago, the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Widmar v. Vincent,1 holding that the free speech clause protects citizens’ religious speech, including religious worship. Such an unremarkable proposition should have been greeted by good-natured agreement that free speech and religious liberty principles—indeed, pluralism itself—require nothing less than full protection for citizens’ religious
READ MORESecular&” is not a bad word, as many religious people and some politicians believe. In fact, it is a good word and, properly understood, is useful to describe our political culture and church-state configuration. The December 17, 2011, Metro Section of the Washington Post contained two articles that illustrate what I mean. One was a
READ MOREIf you thought that Sunday &”blue&” laws were relics of the past, something that belongs in Norman Rockwell paintings of &”the good old days,&” then think again. A recently enacted North Dakota Sunday-closing law reads somewhat like the Jim Crow laws did in the old South in its somewhat archaic absolutism. The statute—&”12.1-30 SUNDAY CLOSING
READ MOREPersecution of Christians is alive and well in Communist China; it became especially vicious, brutal, sadistic, and deadly during the Cultural Revolution. Check-Hung Yee, former Salvation Army official in China, now living in San Francisco, California, says that &”before the Cultural Revolution, there were approximately 1 million Christians. The new atheistic government eventually closed all
READ MOREI am convinced that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose and that in the struggle for righteousness man has cosmic companionship. Behind the harsh appearances of the world there is a benign power. To say God is personal is not to make him an object among other objects or attribute to
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