Mocking God Has Consequences
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
The Tampa, Florida City Council isn’t very bright.
They voted to no longer allow area pastors to conclude their prayers of invocation before City Council in Jesus’ name despite the fact that it has been allowed for years on end. Their reasoning? Council chairwoman Gwen Miller sent out a memo recently that said all invocations must now be “nonsectarian.”
The implication is that Christianity should not be referenced directly. But actually, the word “nonsectarian” is far more specific in its scope. It only means “not limited to or associated with a particular religious denomination.”
Well, correct me if I’m wrong here, but if a pastor concludes his prayer at the outset of the Tampa City Council with the words “in Jesus’ name, Amen” he’s not pushing one particular denomination over another. He’s not advocating the Baptist denomination over the Methodist one for example. He’s just appealing to Jesus.
But, even if the Tampa, Florida City Council did not want the prayer to be overtly Christian, let’s not forget that there’s only one true God. And, whether anyone chooses to believe it or not, He did empty Himself of the glory of heaven and become a man in the form of Jesus.
What happened in Tampa is just one of a myriad number of examples of secularists who are trying to whitewash this nation’s Christian heritage from public view.
They want to rip the phrase “one nation under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance. They want to take dynamite to the Ten Commandments monuments. And they want to sandblast Scriptural references off our national memorials.
These God-haters find it especially repulsive that the passengers aboard the Mayflower back in 1620, including my ancestor William Brewster, signed The Mayflower Compact indicating that the very purpose for America was the “advancement of the Christian Faith.” They’re still getting nauseous over the outrageous assertion in 1776 by our Founding Fathers that there is a God to whom we are accountable. They signed the Declaration of Independence which clearly states: “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.”
But the political correctness of the Tampa City Council recently hit 9.3 on the Richter Scale of Ridiculousness.
It wasn’t enough that they forbade any pastor from praying “in Jesus’ name.” They actually asked an atheist to lead the prayer on July 29th. That’s right – an atheist!
That’s like inviting a strict vegetarian to a pig roast, asking a mute to deliver a stirring speech, or a 400-pound woman to try on a size 2 dress. What’s the point?
It turns out that Tampa, Florida Councilman John Dingfelder had been regularly needled by his neighbor and high school classmate Ed Golly, the president of Atheists of Florida – all 150 of them in a state of 17 million. Golly falsely claimed that an invocation was somehow unconstitutional because it violated the separation of church and state.
“I agree you should have equal time,” Dingfelder told him. “I’ll set it up.” Alright, people. Once and for all. The phrase “separation of church and state” is not found in the U.S. Constitution. The only concern our Founding Fathers had was that one religious denomination would not become the official state-sponsored religion like had occurred in England. We do not enjoy freedom from religion in America, but freedom of religion. Dingfelder says he has been “offended by the extremely religious nature of the invocations that come before us.”
Helloooo! Mr. Dingfelder, get a clue. Invocations, by their very nature, are religious! That’s kinda the point, sir.
So Golly picked Michael R. Harvey, a member of Atheists of Florida, as the official God-denying spokesman to pray – if that makes any sense. To their credit, Council members Kevin White and Mary Alvarez voted to cancel the atheist-led invocation. However, the vote failed 2-4. Then, before Harvey could “pray” to no one up in the sky, White, Alvarez and Rose Ferlita got up and walked away as a sign of protest to the mockery of the invocation. Alvarez said, “I just can’t sit here and listen to someone that does not believe in a Supreme Being.” While Ferlita voted to allow the invocation go on, she walked out and said, “I think this is sending us in the wrong direction.” Amen, sister!
About half-way through his so-called invocation, Harvey criticized mixing prayer and government, saying elected leaders shouldn’t ``seek the guidance of a deity in the public arena. Rather than clasping your hands, bowing your heads and closing your eyes, open your arms to that which truly makes us strong – our diversity,’’
In our day and age, there is no better time to seek guidance from God in the public arena than right now. Just read the headlines.
Not surprisingly, during the very time that the Tampa City Council restricted pastors from praying in Jesus’ name and allowed atheists to lead so-called “prayer”, burglars in that area chose to prey on people whose homes and businesses had been devastated in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley.
Hmmm. I wonder. To the untrained eye, these are just two unrelated headlines. I think not.
When we choose to sugarcoat God, rejecting His atoning work on the cross in the form of Jesus Christ and when we mock Him by inviting atheists to “pray” – is it any wonder that the lack of respect for our Creator leads to a lack of respect for His Laws including “Thou Shalt Not Steal”?
Every time the hell-soaked ACLU wins another victory and intimidates small-town USA to take down their Ten Commandments, that’s just one less reason that people have to act morally and in accordance with God’s statutes.
Just north of Tampa, in a town called Punta Gorda, the Charlotte Harbor Fire Department firefighters arrived early Saturday to find that their computers had been swiped in the night. According to The St. Petersburg Times, “the fear of looting is so widespread, many residents are staying in their damaged homes to protect their valuables.”
At the Harborview Park mobile home community, 45-year-old Peter Fernandes returned to his mother’s damaged home early Sunday. It appeared to him as if the door had been jimmied. “They have no respect for people, even in times like these.”
When looting became the rule of the day in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, their response was to set a curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. to combat theft.
Let’s review! These are burglars who already have an instinctive contempt for the law. A curfew is not the answer.
But publicly acknowledging Jesus, posting the Ten Commandments and embracing our national Christian heritage today might just plant the seeds for the next generation to be future law-abiding citizens who’ll offer to help, not exploit in the midst of a national disaster.
TAKE A STAND ACTION STEPS:
1. Ask Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder to no longer welcome atheists to pray. Write him at: 315 E. Kennedy Blvd., City Hall, 3rd floor, Tampa, FL 33602, Call (813) 274-8131. E-mail: http://www.tampagov.net/dept_City_Council/
2. Learn more about the Christian roots of America at www.wallbuilders.com.
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